It’s a travesty that I had to shell out $24 for a remastered version of Van Morrison’s original album. The remastered version is only available in JAPAN so it has to be IMPORTED! The version available in the U.S. sounds like it was recorded in 1968. The remastered version is superior sonically. It’s worth the extra bucks, but Warner Brothers is ripping off consumers. Other remastered versions of early Van Morrison albums are available in the U.S. and are selling at regular prices–but not Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks always was an odd album, a rock-and-jazz fusion. It was not a big hit when it was first released, but it always had a cult following. Then in 2008, Van Morrison announced he was going on tour performing Astral Weeks. Many critics, including myself, thought this might be a disaster. An aging rock legend performing one of his most difficult works live…this had train-wreck written all over it. But, amazingly, Van Morrison sounds great on Astral Weeks LIVE at the Hollywood Bowl. Morrison has added more instrumentation for this live version. The audience applauds at the end of songs, but is quiet for the most part. If you’re a Van Morrison fan, you must buy the LIVE and remastered versions of Astral Weeks. There’s some great listening here.

Bill Crider give me this award, so now I’m supposed to pay it forward. I’ll name five fabulous blogs below, and it’s up to them to add the award and name five favorites (or not).

Here are the rules:

You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them.

You must list 5 of your Fabulous Addictions in the post. You must copy and paste these rules in the post. Right click the award icon & save to your computer then post with your own awards.

Here are Five Fab Blogs:

1. http://billcrider.blogspot.com/

2. http://elizabethfoxwell.blogspot.com/

3. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/

4. http://bishsbeat.blogspot.com/

5.http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/

I read plenty of  blogs that are fabulous,  but I can list only five.

Addictions: 1. Reading  2. Food 3. Books 4. Music 5. Good friends and conversation (I know this is two addictions, but sue me.  I’m sparing you my more kinky addictions.)

THE DAILY SHOW hyped the confrontation of Jim Cramer, CNBC clown, and Jon Stewart, Grand Inquisitor, as “Brawl Street.” Cramer, the disgraced former hedge fund manager who hosts “Mad Money,” was pummeled by Stewart’s relentless interrogation. Stewart charged Cramer and his lackeys at CNBC–the premier financial news channel–for missing the biggest economic news story of the century. Cramer and the CNBC “experts” were busy selling the idea that the Market was safe for 401Ks and personal investment, downplaying risks while relentlessly promoting their favorite stocks. Clearly, Stewart wasn’t drinking that Kool-Aid. Stewart hammered Cramer with TV clips where Cramer is shown boasting how he had manipulated the Market. Pretty damning evidence. Cramer is a fraud and Jon Stewart exposed him as the corrupt fool he is. The larger question is why did it take a comedian on the Comedy Network to reveal Cramer’s duplicity instead of the Wall Street Journal, or…CNBC?

If you scour the course descriptions and syllabi at SUNY at Buffalo or any other elite university English Department you’re not going find any mention of John Cheever. John Cheever was once considered the best American short story writer. He captured the essence of life in suburbia. The Stories of John Cheever won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Cheever was a mainstay at The New Yorker for decades. Although not known as a great novelist, Cheever’s first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle, won a National Book Award. I consider Cheever’s penultimate novel, Falconer, to be a Forgotten Book of the first rank in quality. Cheever’s demons–alcoholism, depression, sexual obsession–destroyed him in 1982. His fame had slipped away year by year since then until Cheever and his works were nearly forgotten. Now, with these two just released, wonderful Library of America volumes, Cheever’s brilliant short stories and clever novels are available again. Don’t miss the delights in these pages!

Last week I was disappointed by Alice Russell’s Pot of Gold and this week I’m disappointed by Anthony Hamilton’s The Point of It All. Why can’t anybody sing good R&B any more? Like Alice Russell, Anthony Hamilton has a great voice. Once again, it’s weak songs. Of the 14 songs on this CD, only two of them, “Diamond in the Rough” and “Her Heart” are worth listening to again. GRADE: C.

Who the Hell is Pansy O’Hara? The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World’s Best-Loved Books by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy is the kind of book I find irresistible. It answers questions like: “What manuscript when stacked up was taller than its author?” Answer: Gone With the Wind AND 4 foot 9 inch Margaret Mitchell. Bond and Sheedy supply plenty of cool, quirky facts about their 50 books. You’ll find this book addicting.

I really need to stay out of Sam’s Club. I found this set for $49.88. AMAZON wants $107.99 for the same thing. Now I just have to find time to watch all 117 episodes!

It’s hard to believe there hasn’t been a definitive history of American Women Writers written until this volume by Elaine Showalter. A Jury of Her Peers is a mixed bag. The strongest chapter for me was “Against Women’s Writing: Wharton and Cather.” The weakest chapters are the last few on women writers of the 1970s to the 1990s. It seemed to me that Showalter just ran out of gas in her 600 page tome.

These three adventures are basically low-rent Indiana Jones movies. Noah Wyle plays Flynn Carsen, an obsessive/compulsive nerdy student with 22 college degrees. Carsen is hired by the Library to retrieve the powerful mystical artifact, The Spear of Destiny. Of course, Carsen has to battle the Serpent Brotherhood, the Bad Guys who want to rule the world with the power of the Spear. In his second adventure, Carsen searches for King Solomon’s mines and clues to his father’s past. In the latest adventure, The Judas Chalice Carsen takes on vampires and former KGB operatives who want to form an army of the undead. These made-for-TNT movies are escapist fluff. GRADE: C+ (for all three)

Watchmen takes place on an alternate Earth where it’s 1985, Richard Nixon is President, and caped crime fighters are “retired” by legislation. But suddenly, one of the former crime fighters, The Comedian, is murdered. The murder is somehow connected to the growing prospect of nuclear war. Three of the crime fighters, Rorschach, Night Owl II, and Silk Spectre II, attempt to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, the only super hero, Dr. Manhattan, leaves Earth for Mars which triggers a global crisis. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, the movie is too long. Director Zach Snyder gets credit for making a movie based on a book that was thought unfilmable. But Snyder also gets demerits for being a little too slavish to the book. This is not so much a movie as a documentary. GRADE: B-.