Neil Diamond was a songwriter in the legendary Brill Building in 1966, but he wanted to be more than that: he wanted to be a performer. So Diamond signed with upstart Bang Records and produced a string of hits. This new collection features 23 songs, remastered in pristine mono. These pop songs never sounded so good. As always, Ed Ward’s commentary (below) is full of obscure information about Neil Diamond and his career. Neil Diamond is one of the few people to be a member of both The Songwriter’s Hall of Fame but also The Rock-&-Roll Hall of Fame. GRADE: A
Track List
1. Solitary Man 2:35
2. Cherry, Cherry 2:45
3. Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon 3:01
4. Kentucky Woman 2:26
5. Thank the Lord For the Night Time 3:03
6. You Got To Me 2:51
7. I’m a Believer 2:44
8. Red, Red Wine 2:42
9. The Boat That I Row 2:40
10. Do It 1:54
11. New Orleans 2:26
12. Monday, Monday 3:03
13. Red Rubber Ball 2:23
14. I’ll Come Running 3:02
15. La Bamba 2:10
16. The Long Way Home 2:33
17. I’ve Got the Feeling (Oh No No) 2:20
18. You’ll Forget 2:50
19. Love To Love 2:22
20. Someday Baby 2:19
21. Hanky Panky 2:50
22. The Time is Now 3:04
23. Shilo 3:27

I’m alive! My surgery went well. I have a nice new left knee. But I came down with a bad case of illuis (forgive my spelling) which is a condition that shuts down the gastric system. The cause is anesthesia and the pain medications. As soon as I recover, I’ll be back blogging in real time. Until then, I have posts ready for the next week or two. I go to Rehab tomorrow. More details as soon as I’m able. Avoid hospitals!

I’m in the minority on my opinion of Somewhere. Roger Ebert gave it four stars and A.O. Scott of the New York Times put Somewhere on his Year’s Best Movies list. My son, Patrick, also thought Somewhere was one of the best movies of 2010. After watching Somewhere, I told Patrick how they came up with the title of the movie: “When you’re watching it, you wish you were somewhere else.” Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this movie about a Hollywood actor whose life seems meaningless. His 11-year-old daughter gets dumped on him because his ex-wife needs “space.” A series of meaningless scenes follow: a trip to Italy, an award show, a helicopter ride to the daughter’s summer camp. Dull, dull, dull. I suppose we’re supposed to think the actor’s life sucks, but I wasn’t convinced (plenty of women in his life). I’ve seen Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. Coppola’s movies always distance the audience. I love movies that draw me in and completely involve me. Coppola’s movies keep me at an arm’s length and annoy me. GRADE: C-

PBS Masterpiece Theater presents Christie’s The Clocks tonight. Originally published in 1963, the novel immediately annoyed me with part of the story told in the third person and part of the story told in the first person. A secretary is summoned to an apartment where she finds a blind woman and a dead body. Four clocks are mysteriously present. And they are set an hour ahead of the actual time. The Clocks reminded me more of an Ellery Queen or John Dickson Carr mystery than a Christie. And when Poirot reveals the key to the puzzle, a mystery writer is at the center of the solution. GRADE: B

PBS Masterpiece Mystery broadcast Agatha Christie’s Three Act Tragedy (aka, Murder in Three Acts last weekend. Tomorrow, Masterpiece Mystery will present The Clocks, and Hallowe’en Party will be broadcast on July 3. A Miss Marple, The Pale Horse, will be broadcast on July 10. Three Act Tragedy centers around a relationship of a young woman, Egg, and a retired actor. A pastor dies under mysterious circumstances, then a well-known neurologist dies under similar circumstances. The butler disappears. Poirot untangles all the red herrings and feints to identify the murderer. Published in 1935, Three Act Tragedy shows Christie at the top of her game. GRADE: A

For those of you who are fans of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, you’ll be interested to know about Kirill Yeskov’s unofficial story of the LOTR from the point of view of the Orcs. Yes, this is the story of The Ring told by the losing side. Yeskov’s book was published in Russia in 1999 and bootleg translations have circulated for years. But last year, Yisroel Markov translated The Last Ringbearer into English with clarity and verve. You can download a free copy here. Laura Miller’s “Middle-Earth According to Mordor” also contains some interesting analysis. If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, The Last Ringbearer is worth reading. And next week, the expanded versions of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy will be shown at your local Regal theaters. Order your tickets now!

Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues contains the transcripts from shows broadcast from 2007 to 2010. My problem with some of the interviews was that time had made them dated. My favorite interviews were Jon Stewart and David Simon (The Wire). Here’s the entire list of the 47 interviews:
Table of Contents:
Jon Stewart
Michael Pollan
Louise Erdrich
Nikki Giovanni
Andrew Bacevich
Robert Wright
David Simon
Victor Gold
Nell Painter
Jim Hightower
Richard Goldstone
Robert Bly
Jeremy Scahill
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
John Lithgow
William Greider
Karen Armstrong
Ross Douthat and Mickey Edwards
Grace Lee Boggs
Games K. Galbraith
Douglas Blackmon
Sam Tanenhaus
Maxine Hong Kingston
E. O. Wilson
Simon Johnson
Holly Sklar
Jane Goodall
James Cone
David Boies and Ted Olson
Wendell Potter
Benjamin Barber
Margaret Flowers
Philippe Sands
Howard Zinn
Michelle Alexander and Bryan Stevenson
Thomas Cahill
Shelby Steele
Robert Kaiser
Barbara Ehrenreich
Martín Espada
John Grisham
Susan Jacoby
Jim Yong Kim
W. S. Merwin
Mike Davis
Reverend Jeremiah Wright
Barry Lopez.

Set about 20 years from now, Alastair Reynolds’ new short novel, Troika, explores the effect of a humongous alien spacecraft that enters our solar system. The alien craft is the size of a moon, but seems damaged. The Chinese and U.S. send probes to the strange object, but the results are confounding. The New Soviet Union, the only country that still has a space program, sends a three-cosmonaut mission to the giant derelict. What they find will change the world forever. This Subterranean Press edition is a bit pricey, but if you’re an Alastair Reynolds fan, this is a must-buy. GRADE: B+

Owen Wilson plays a frustrated writer about to marry the fetching Rachel McAdam, when the magic of Paris enters his life. Wilson is whisked back in time to the Paris of the 1920s where he meets Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Zelda, Gertrude Stein, Cole Porter, and a dozen other writers and artists. Wilson returns to contemporary Paris, but is frustrated by life in the 21st Century so each night he returns to the Paris of the past. Like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Midnight in Paris explores the creative process and the choices that shape our lives. Owen Wilson surprises in convincing us this fantasy could really be happening. Rachel McAdam isn’t given much to do. The rest of the cast is solid. I enjoyed Midnight in Paris and you probably would, too. GRADE: B+