Day 1,143, Quasi-Quarantine: Wes Anderson Takes On The "Star Wars" Universe

Recently viewing "Return of the Jedi" again in the theater as part of a 40th anniversary celebration made me appreciate this interpretation even more.

And I fully admit that Scarlett Johansson as Princess Leia might have buckled my knees a bit.

Limerick Friday LXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXV: The Return Of Somewhat-Watchable TV, Plus The Pack Is Utterly Lost

The fall season is back, none too soon
For TV critics, a virtual boon
“Sons,” “The League” and “It’s Always Sunny”
Plus “The Office,” “Modern Family” bring the funny
But “Fringe” is what has me amped like a loon

With hackers her agent got tough
When ScarJo appeared in the buff
FBI put their best on the case
Examined every pic at their own pace
Being an FBI agent is so very rough

There was a shadow of a doubt
So his case taken up by those with clout
But his sentence was never commuted
So Troy Davis was executed
Lady Justice’s scale ain’t looking very stout

A speech caused a walkout at the U.N.
Iran causing turmoil, once again
Their leader’s name has a lot of vowels
Now probably some loose bowels
When you’re mad, remember to count to 10

A team with a lack of fight
Makes for a very long night
State’s injuries keep mounting
The losses keep on counting
Enough barks -- when you gonna bite?

Last time …

Limerick Friday LXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXVIII: Scarlett Needs Consoling, Plus Jets Douchebag Wiseguy Should Be Shitcanned

Her marriage ends in two years
A good run for celebrity peers
To dear Scarlett I say
Don’t trust Canadians … eh?
I’m happy to wipe away those tears

SMU cheated every way under the sun
But you know, at least they won
Are they listening in Chapel Hill today?
Or rearranging the Carolina Way?
Craig James was a douche, then he raised a douche son

Julian Assange is free on bail
His arrest was an epic fail
They’ve created a monster in WikiLeaks
Behind the curtains, we’re getting secret peeks
Hackers now united to keep him outta jail

Snow has come Raleigh way
But slushy, so no fun to play
Folks flock to the Teeter for milk
Rough driving for ‘necks and their ilk
Just say inside, that’s what I say

The Jets add cheating to the mix
Trip other players for kicks
While ESPN applauds
They’re exposed as frauds
Send their lapband-wearing coach to the sticks

Last time …

“Dark Knight” Was All, Like … Long

Enh. I didn’t dig “Dark Knight.” That’s OK, right?

I had heard about how tremendous this flick was from almost every quarter, so maybe I came in expecting too much. It was entertaining and action-packed, but I thought it was about as good as most of the “Batman” movies and not as good as “Batman Begins.”

I didn’t really buy Maggie Gyllenhaal as the love interest (she’s more quirky hot) and thought Morgan Freeman was underutilized in what amounted to a throwaway role. Heath Ledger was good as the Joker, but not as transcendant as some had ascribed him to be, in my estimation. Playing the Joker gives you license to act freaky, creepy and outlandish, and he nailed that, but it just came as off as a bit overdone (Jack Nicholson nailed it, just as Jim Carrey owned the Riddler, and all others will fall short).

It was really, really long (to make up for it, I’ve made this rather short). Beyond that, I found it be a little trite at times (the situation of the dueling cruise ships, one full of elitists and the other full of convicts, was horribly forced) and Batman’s motivation to “give up” wasn’t explored enough to warrant its inclusion. Don’t get me wrong; the fight scenes were pretty cool and a lot of stuff certainly done got exploded. But I found it to be a step back from “Batman Begins” (and this version), even though I realize Ledger died and all that. I get it.

Wake me up when a new version comes out with Catwoman involved, played by Scarlett Johansson.

Seeding Breakdown, Part I: The Top Six, Plus Fun With Pictures

Well, it's March, and what does that mean? The "granddaddy of all conference tournaments", the brainchild of the immortal Everett Case, the crown jewel of Tobacco Road … played in Atlanta … in a dome … that's filled to quarter-capacity … and open to the public. Yes, it's the ACC Tournament, where seasons can be defined or tossed away, NCAA bids can be won or lost, seeds can be raised or lowered, coaches can get fired or raises, NBA futures can be created or taken away, Duke cheerleaders can be mistaken for Norwegian wrestlers, UNC fans are separated with crowbars — and the guys in the Foot Locker uniforms have more power than anyone.

Every year (well, at least in 2007 and 2008), I analyze the seeding breakdowns, then I take a crack at completing the tourney bracket. Here's Part I of my breakdown, and you can check out Part II here.

Giddyup.

#1 UNC (27-3 overall, 13-3 in ACC)
The Tar Heels still show relatively little interest in playing defense for most of the game and have a tendency to forget Tyler Hansbrough when they fall in love with the fast break, but the biggest difference this year is a healthy Ty Lawson with a jump shot. He has surpassed Hansbrough as the best player on this team, and he ensures that sensitive types like Wayne Ellington and Danny Green get the ball often enough to keep them involved. Deon Thompson remains an enigma and Tyler Zeller’s impact has been highly overblown, but beyond Bobby Frasor and Ed Davis, does this team play enough defense in Marcus Ginyard’s absence?

The story that hasn’t been written yet is how Hansbrough has turned into the league’s biggest flopper since Shane Battier. Hell, there are times I wonder if his doppelganger Will has been learning flopping techniques over at Duke while “Psycho T” helps Roy Williams “wax his Coke machine” (yes, that might be a euphemism) after practice.

As usual with UNC, their chances from here on out depend largely on how the refs elect to officiate Hansbrough. If he’s continued to allow to take four steps, launch himself into the nearest defender, scream, throw up an awkward one-hander while falling down and then walk directly to the foul line, the Tar Heels can beat anyone. If he’s officiated fairly and the other team has a strong point guard who will attack Lawson, UNC has been shown to be beatable. The bottom line is that Brokeback U. has more talent (by a lot) than anyone in the conference and they’re the odds-on favorite to cut down the nets in Hotlanta. However, Williams’s relative disdain for the conference tournament and the Heels’ unwillingness to play much “D” has to make you a bit leery.


#2 Wake Forest (24-5 overall, 11-5 in the ACC)
Midway through the conference slate, it certainly didn’t look like the Deacs would eventually rise up and steal the No. 2 slot headed into the league tourney. Exposed by NC State’s box-and-one defense, Wake demonstrated that its frantic pace could be controlled by taking away the dominant interior games of James Johnson, Al Farouq-Aminu and (to a much lesser extent) Chas McFarland. The lightning-quick backcourt of Ish Smith and Jeff Teague could penetrate, create (Smith) and finish (Teague), but when forced to shoot from the perimeter, the Demon Deacons could be had.

Toward the end of the season, Wake Forest played better on defense, dominated the boards, took better shots and had a second player burst through to join Teague in providing consistent sterling play: Johnson. The weak link on this team is L.D. Williams, who yells, screams, pounds his chest, and dunks every now and again, but is more likely to throw up an airball and then dribble one off his foot than he is to have a big impact on the game. Teague is a thug-in-the-making in the Chris Paul mold, Smith’s jumpers have broken more backboards than Jerome Lane, and Johnson is one of those 30-year-olds who looks like he should be playing for Memphis instead of Wake.

You wonder sometimes when watching the Deacs play whether they buy into defense enough and whether they are mature enough. But when they are going good, they are deep, fast and intimidating. The ultimate boom-or-bust team, Wake is the one team that could either win the whole ACC Tournament or go out meekly in the opening round against a lesser squad. Either way, the “Swiss” fans will be watching closely in their tie-dyed, wannabe-Cameron-Crazies T-shirts.



#3 Duke (25-6 overall, 11-5 in the ACC)
Similarly to Wake Forest, the Blue Devils looked like an ACC also-ran about halfway through the league year, after losing four of six in conference play. Swingman Gerald Henderson has made the leap from big-time athlete to full-blown star this season, and has paired with versatile Kyle Singler to power Duke all year long. However, the Devils have been exposed as relatively unathletic at most positions and not physical enough on the interior, putting too much pressure on Henderson and Singler to carry the load with Jon Scheyer losing his shot.

Toward the latter part of the regular season, Coach K scratched his shoe-polish encrusted head and realized he needed to shake up his backcourt. He installed little-used rookie Elliott Williams at the two, slid Scheyer over to the point and relegated perpetual dunk victim Greg Paulus even deeper onto the bench. Williams added more athleticism, length and defense, while having the ball more allowed Scheyer to better hunt his shot. Throw in a revitalized Lance Thomas and the omnipresent garbage man David McClure, and all of a sudden the Dookies had a lot more meaningful options.

Duke played well toward the end of the year, although Williams has to be cautioned not to overstep his bounds and shoot too much and Nolan Smith is still concussed after a healthy run-in with Maryland meathead Dave Neal. Singler still settles for the jump shot too much and Henderson can’t go left to save his life, but if Scheyer maintains his composure and keeps hitting his perimeter shots and if Brian Zoubek can simply stay out of his own way, the Blue Devils can be a thorn in the side throughout the ACC tourney. There’s little question that Coach K seems to recruit based on how many funny-looking white kids he can stock on one roster, but Duke is capable of overcoming a gap in athleticism for long enough to sustain a tourney run.


#4 Florida State (23-8 overall, 10-6 in the ACC)
It says here that Toney Douglas should be the ACC Player of the Year and Leonard “I’m the black Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man” Hamilton should be the ACC Coach of the Year. (It also says here that Scarlett Johansson should let me open bottles of Sierra Nevada with her cleavage while Katherine Heigl watches, so take that for what it’s worth.) But at the risk of sounding like there’s a little bit of a bias toward UNC and Duke and against the expansion ACC members … well … there’s a little bit of a bias toward UNC and Duke and against the expansion ACC members.


Regardless, the Seminoles are perhaps the best and most underreported story in the league this year, and the phenomenal Douglas is the reason why. He’s put FSU on his back and helped to put the incessant cheating in the football program in Tallahassee on the backburner, leading the ACC in scoring and finishing in the top 10 in eight other categories. He’s gotten big-time help in the form of Uche Echefu and Solomon Alabi, who are even better on the court than they would be as answers on “Wheel of Fortune.”

The questions are whether Douglas will begin to wear down from carrying such a load (he’s playing more than 37 minutes a game, on top of everything else) and whether he has enough of a supporting cast (no other FSU player averages in double-figures) to lift up the ‘Noles should his play fall off or should he experience foul trouble. The answer is probably no, but Florida State has a formula—elite-caliber lead guard, powerful front line and strong defense—that can make them a tough out in any tourney format.


#5 Clemson (23-7 overall, 9-7 in the ACC)
Seemingly for years, the Tigers have started off 16-0, hit the meat of the conference schedule and ended the season losing like eight out of 10. A similar scenario took place again this year, so what’s different and why should you pay attention? Clemson only had really one head-scratching loss this year (in overtime at Virginia) and despite being swept by Florida State and losing at home to Virginia Tech, appeared to be steadier and more well-rounded than in years past.

Trevor Booker is going to get screwed out of first-team All-ACC honors, and that’s a shame, because the kid is a forking beast. A walking double-double, he’s added a midrange game to his frightening forays to the hoop and nightly attempts to rearrange rims all over the ACC. I swear K.C. Rivers used to feed Tree Rollins in the post, but this ninth-year senior remains his streaky self, continuing to be an underrated rebounder for his size and a guy who can make teams pay from beyond the arc. Point guard Demontez Stitt didn’t quite emerge as a standout this year as many expected, but he is still a more-than-serviceable solution as the primary ballhandler.

Perhaps the biggest difference this year for the Tigers has been the surprising evolution of Terrence Oglesby, who, despite having a rather, shall we say, non-white-sounding name and looking like every kid I ever played high school basketball against, ever, has emerged as more than just a deadly three-point marksman. Add in Raymond Sykes (his whipping dreadlocks get him an extra three rebounds per game simply because no one wants to lose an eye boxing him out) and Jerai Grant down low, and you begin to see why Clemson is potentially so dangerous. Not only can they press you to death, but they finally have more offensive firepower to help them both make up deficits and put teams away. Do they have enough offensive pieces yet, though? If they can’t prove they do with this relatively favorable draw in the tourney, the window may close on coach and Lou Gossett Jr. body double Oliver Purnell.



#6 Boston College (21-10 overall, 9-7 in the ACC)
Perhaps no player in the league scares teams more in the open floor than Tyrese Rice. He’s been the most underpublicized player on the national scene for seemingly years, and even though his minutes and scoring went down a little this year, his assists went way up and he didn’t have to completely dominate the ball as much as usual. Versatile Vermont transfer Joe “Don’t Call Me Satriani” Trapani has enough of an inside-outside game to force foes to respect him, while shooting guard Rakim Sanders has broken through this year as a dangerous sidekick for Rice. If only he had Eric B. to work alongside him …

Josh Southern is a foul machine, but he’s big enough to cause problems inside, while Corey Raji does a little bit of everything for the Eagles. While freshman Reggie Jackson isn’t the straw that stirs the drink (some of you saw what I did there), he’s athletic enough to create problems as a finisher on the break and as a garbage man. No one gets more out of less than coach Al Skinner (and no one gets more teeth into one mouth than him, either), who has quietly put together yet another 20-win campaign.

One of the issues with this team is you never know which one will show up — can you think of any other squad in the land that could beat UNC and then lose to Harvard in back-to-back games? But Skinner has a lot of athletic, physical players, and any team with Tyrese Rice on it is a threat to beat any other squad on any given night in the ACC Tournament. Can Rice catch fire like Randolph Childress did years ago to lift Wake Forest to the tourney title? That’s a lot to ask, but for any single game, this is a team that you don’t want to face in a tourney setting.

Tomorrow ... part deux!

A Dark Day In Scooterville ...

Apparently, Scarlett Johansson went ahead and got married in secret, thus destroying a potentially electric relationship between us that the paparazzi was bound to dub "Scootlett."

Oh, well. Her forehead was always too big for me anyway.

ScarCruz Coming To Theaters Near You

In case you wanted an update on the already-infamous, much-talked-about Scarlett-Penelope-fill-in-whoever-you-want cinematic threesome, the trailer for Vicki Cristina Barcelona has been released. Scarlett's recent engagement has made her dead to me, but I thought this was still worth updating.

Good times ...

Say It Ain't So, Scarlett ...

The guy from freaking "Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place"? Really? Well, you and Katherine Heigl can both go to hell. You are both dead to me.

I'm crying on the inside ... and the outside.

Obama In ’08: Yes We Can

Like many Americans, I wanted to find out more about various candidates before making a decision on who I’d prefer to see running our country in 2008 and beyond. Unlike many Americans, however, I elected not to base my opinions on candidates on media-propagated stereotypes and partisan caricatures; I decided to actually take it into my own hands to learn more and form my own opinions.

That’s why I recently read “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama. His star has risen so quickly within and outside the Democratic party that everyone is scrambling to find his weak spot, to uncover the skeletons in his closet. He’s not the ideal candidate, and there will remain questions about him just like there should be questions about every candidate until they are held over the fire of office. But I have personally learned enough to feel that he’s what both parties — and the American people — need right now. Here are a few of the things that he wrote that spoke to me:

"If anything, what struck me was just how modest people's hopes were, and how much of what they believed seemed to hold constant across race, region, religion, and class. Most of them thought that anybody willing to work should be able to find a job that paid a living wage. They figured that people shouldn't have to file for bankruptcy because they got sick. They believed that every child should have a genuinely good education — that it shouldn't just be a bunch of talk — and that those same children should be able to go to college even if their parents weren't rich. They wanted to be safe, from criminals and from terrorists; they wanted clean air, clean water, and time with their kids. And when they got old, they wanted to be able to retire with some dignity and respect.
"That was about it. It wasn't much. And although they understood that how they did in life depended mostly on their own efforts — although they didn't expect government to solve all their problems, and certainly didn't like seeing their tax dollars wasted — they figured that government should help.
"I told them that they were right: government couldn't solve all their problems. But with a slight change in priorities we could make sure every child had a decent shot at life and meet the challenges we faced as a nation."


"I am a Democrat, after all; my views on most topics correspond more closely to the editorial pages of the New York Times than those of the Wall Street Journal. I am angry about policies that consistently favor the wealthy and powerful over average Americans, and insist that government has an important role in opening up opportunity to all. I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody's religious beliefs — including my own — on nonbelievers. Furthermore, I am a prisoner of my own biography: I can't help but view the American experience through the lens of a black man of mixed heritage, forever mindful of how generations of people who looked like me were subjugated and stigmatized, and the subtle and not so subtle ways that race and class continue to shape our lives.
"But that is not all that I am. I also think my party can be smug, detached, and dogmatic at times. I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don't work as advertised. I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers. I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP."

"Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views."

"Individually, Democratic legislators and candidates propose a host of sensible if incremental ideas, on energy and education, health care and homeland security, hoping that it all adds up to something resembling a governing philosophy. Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action. In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism, and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with larger meaning. We lose elections and hope for the courts to foil Republican plans. We lose the courts and wait for a White House scandal."

"In other words, the Ownership Society doesn't even try to spread the risks and rewards of the new economy among all Americans. Instead, it simply magnifies the uneven risks and rewards of today's winner-take-all economy. If you are healthy or wealthy or just plain lucky, then you will become more so. If you are poor or sick or catch a bad break, you will have nobody to look to for help. That's not a recipe for sustained economic growth or the maintenance of a strong American middle class. It's certainly not a recipe for social cohesion. It runs counter to those values that say we have a stake in each other's success.
"It's not who we are as a people."


"What would that be worth to all of us — an America in which crime has fallen, more children are cared for, cities are reborn, and the biases, fear, and discord that black poverty feeds are slowly drained away? Would it be worth what we've spent in the past year in Iraq? Would it be worth relinquishing demands for estate tax repeal? It's hard to quantify the benefits of such changes — precisely because the benefits would be immeasurable."

"Perhaps someone inside the White House has clear answers to these [foreign policy] questions. But our allies — and for that matter our enemies — certainly don't know what those answers are. More important, neither do the American people. Without a well-articulated strategy that the public supports and the world understands, America will lack the legitimacy — and ultimately the power — it needs to make the world safer than it is today."

"For I am getting to an age where I have a sense of what satisfies me, and although I am perhaps more tolerant of compromise … I know that my satisfaction is not to be found in the glare of television cameras or the applause of the crowd. Instead, it seems to come more often now from knowing that in some demonstrable way I've been able to help people live their lives with some measure of dignity. I think of what Benjamin Franklin wrote to his mother, explaining why he had devoted so much of his time to public service: 'I would rather have it said, He lived usefully, than, He died rich.'"

For good measure, he’s also the subject of the most powerful and moving campaign video that I’ve ever seen … and I’m impressed that he’s willing to embrace the undeniable, overriding political message of the 21st century:

Scarlett. Johansson. Gets. Votes.*



* My WWSJD bracelet is on back order as we speak.

Get A Woody Over New Allen Film

So “industry insiders” report that Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz take part in a jaw-dropping lesbian scene in Woody Allen’s new flick “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

[speechless]

[letting that sink in]

[still speechless]

Now, Scarlett has teased us before, but if this rumor is true, then Allen will go from being one of the most overrated filmmakers of all time -- he has basically made a career out of playing a stuttering manic-depressive with social anxiety disorder on-screen and an incestuous, confusing elf off it -- to the most misunderstood genius in the history of the world.

This is life-changing stuff we’re talking about here.

Scooter & Hum’s Top Five Albums Of The Year

In saying goodbye to 2007, I took a look at some of my favorite books of the year last week. In this week’s version of "The Scooties", I thought I’d run down some of the albums that had me cabbage-patching through the seasons. Enjoy …

And the "Scootie" goes to …

1. Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
Release Date: March 6, 2007
Best Songs: “Keep The Car Running”, “(Antichrist Television Blues)”
Rolling Stone rating: 3.5 stars
Rolling Stone review link and quote: “Like almost everything on Neon Bible, the follow-up to Arcade Fire's 2004 full-length debut, Funeral, "No Cars Go" is excess with a point: We are drowning in the unspeakable and running out of air and fight. If only everything else on Neon Bible made that point with the same dynamic overkill.”—David Fricke
Thoughts: Think Springsteen meets old-school U2 meets Radiohead. “Neon Bible” has been derided in some quarters as being more studio-smooth and not as raw as the debut “Funeral,” but I believe both pieces can be appreciated on their own merits, without comparison. The near-frantic “Keep The Car Running” will forever be the song that always makes me think of 2007.



2. The Shins “Wincing the Night Away”
Release Date: January 23, 2007
Best Songs: “Sleeping Lessons”, “Phantom Limb”
Rolling Stone rating: 3.5 stars
Rolling Stone review link and quote: “The melodies are very nearly on a par with the curlicues and knockout drops of the band's breakthrough, and [James] Mercer is still singing so lithe and refined you'd think Ray Charles had never existed.”—Robert Christgau
Thoughts: Most people know that the Shins were vaulted into mainstream recognition thanks to Natalie Portman, who claimed that the band would “change your life” in the Zach Braff movie “Garden State.” That led many who would otherwise have ignored “Oh, Inverted World” to discover that terrific album. I know I always do whatever Natty Port says; she has a convincing, er, way, about her. “Wincing the Night Away” builds on that success with a little harder edge and some better-considered lyrics. They still are the type of band that feels like you’re listening to something in the background instead of really involved, but that just makes them different, not lacking. And that’s more than OK.



3. White Stripes “Icky Thump”
Release Date: June 19, 2007
Best Songs: “Icky Thump”, “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)”, "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues"
Rolling Stone rating: 3.5 stars
Rolling Stone review link and quote: “Like his sometime heroes Led Zeppelin, Jack White builds monuments. They're suitable for awestruck visits. But they're no place to settle down.”—Robert Christgau
Thoughts: Dug it. Loudier, noiser, harsher, grungier, meaner. I read that “Icky Thump” was their first song that made the top 20 or something, but while that is a complete turnoff for some hoity-tooty musicophiles, I can look the other way. Jack and Meg always have fun and always include some throwaway songs, but no one generates more sound per band member and they are constantly refining their sound and experimenting. “You Don’t Know What Love Is” veers close to ‘80s hair rock, but the thumping sound of the well-named “Icky Thump” is mesmerizing. You can’t beat a lyric like “White Americans, what? / Nothing better to do? / Why don’t you kick yourself out? / You’re an immigrant, too. / Who’s using you? / What should we do? / Well, you can’t be a pimp, / And a prostitute, too.” Or how about "I'm breakin' my teeth off / Tryin' to bite my lip / There's all kinds of red-headed women / That I ain't supposed to kiss" from "300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues"? Some wondered whether Jack’s side projects (e.g., the Raconteurs) would adversely affect his White Stripes work, but this album dashes those beliefs toot-sweet. This is one of the few bands left that always have me eagerly anticipating their next work — and never leave me disappointed.



4. "Once" Soundtrack
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Best Songs: “Say It To Me Now”, “When Your Minds Made Up”
Rolling Stone rating: 2.0 stars
Rolling Stone review link and quote: “Thanks to [Glen Hansard’s] soulful wail, cuts like the excellent "Trying to Pull Myself Away" and "Leave" have a solid roots-rock magnetism.”—Kevin O’Donnell
Thoughts: A terrific accompaniment to one of my finest films of 2007 (stay tuned for that list). Not only does the movie leave you wanting to see more, see it again, but it makes you leave the theater wondering, “Where the hell do I get the soundtrack?” Glen Hansard mixes some of his songs from The Frames with some great collaboration with the young, sublimely talented Marketa Irglova. The result is some very emotional, hard-hitting tracks that complement the film well, but can also be thoroughly enjoyed as standalone pieces. Some of the songs miss the mark (inevitably, every soundtrack has a few), but overall, a very strong effort and one of the better soundtracks you’ll ever find.



5. Joss Stone “Introducing Joss Stone”
Release Date: March 20, 2007
Best Songs: "Tell Me ‘Bout It", "Put Your Hands On Me"
Rolling Stone rating: 3.0 stars
Rolling Stone review link and quote: “But for the most part, Stone employs her remarkable instrument with focus and nuance on Introducing, and the result is an album full of solid pop-wise R&B.”—Christian Hoard
Thoughts: Hot. 19 years old. British. What’s not to like? Do you really need to actually listen? I mean, good music would be a bonus, right? In all seriousness, if you were to be locked in a room and played the album without knowing who the singer was, and then someone told you it was a 19-year-old white chick from Britain, you’d probably laugh and say no way. But Stone seizes your attention right off the bat with a shockingly powerful voice that puts the en vogue pop tarts that litter our soundwaves to shame. I’m not as familiar with her previous work, but I’ve read that this album is a departure from her soul roots to more R&B, and that definitely came across. This isn’t the type of music I’d normally like and in a normal year this album wouldn’t make my top five, but it was recommended to me and I found myself digging at least a couple of tracks on the album. I’m not sure I would go out and buy more Joss Stone pieces, but I can certainly appreciate the immense talent and potential that her voice alone offers. Personally, I’d like to see her lean more toward soul and put the hip-hop tinges aside, but this piece is worth the get just to hear the middle portion of “Put Your Hands on Me.”

Honorable mention:
Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times” and the Raconteurs’s “Broken Boy Soldiers” were both released in late 2006, narrowly missing the cut for inclusion in this list. I was expecting a little more from Jack White and the Raconteurs, to be honest, but this was still a funky disc that leaned a little more toward poppy than I prefer. Still worth a listen or five. Dylan’s latest was terrific, and he gets a lot of bonus points for casting Scarlett Johansson in his video for “When the Deal Goes Down.” Need more convincing? See for yourself …

Scottish Paper Reveals Proof Of God?

From "Scotland's Newspaper," the Daily Record, in a story headlined Scarlett's Red Hot Role:

SCARLETT JOHANSSON is being pursued to play the world's top X-rated star Jenna Jameson in her life story.
Sexy Scarlett has been hand-picked by the adult movie babe as her choice for the lead in a movie adaptation of her book, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale.
Jenna is currently in talks with producers and hopes work will start on the movie next year.
She revealed: "We're looking at Scarlett. She's my choice.
"I think she's beautiful."

[speechless]