multimedia roundup

Some recommendations (click through for summaries):

Andre Watts, The Chopin Recital, 1992 (CD).
Technically brilliant, with all the fireworks one would expect from one of the all-time greats playing the all-time great composer for the piano.

Saddiq Barmak, Osama, 2003 (DVD).
Need any more reason to hate the Taliban? To despise oppressive fundamentalism? Poignant, painful. "Non-actors." Barmak, in the opening shot, makes the viewer complicit; when the photographer is later executed (off-screen, to horrific effect), the viewer feels executed as well. Exceptional filmmaking.

Patrice Leconte, Ridicule, 1996 (DVD).
Nominated for Best Foreign Film. No surprise; it's lavishly costumed, beautifully shot, elegantly witty. Only a little preachy, and that mostly toward the end. From decaying manors to decadent priests, from cheap sex to true love, from mosquito-infested swamps to lavish royal gardens, Ridicule has everything. Not to mention the shocking opening sequence--cover your eyes, oh ye squeamish.

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003 (novel).
A realistic post-apocalyptic future with an infuriating conclusion. I'll have to read more Atwood, now; it's like Vonnegut or Palahniuk--darkly humorous and easily digestible, but unsettling, even stomach-churning in its plausibility. Only quibble: why do companies, years hence, have such cheesily-spelled names? "RejoovenEsense." "HelthWyzer." "AnooYoo." Annoying.

If you haven't guessed, my tastes are a wee bit eclectic. Oh, and I perform sacrificial rites for the public library deities every day.