REVIEWING THE SITUATION

This week's movie reviews:

In Theatres:
* Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, one of Zhang Yimou's latest

On DVD:
* Hammer Fim Noir vols. 1-3, a collection of British noir
* Sorry, Haters starring Robin Wright Penn, a strange and divisive indie drama

And what's the deal with this country? Did anybody else watch the Elton John special "Fashion Rocks" that aired on CBS this past Friday? During Christina Aguilera's performance of "Candy Man," they dropped the word "panties" out of the song. Now, I'm not surprised they didn't want her to say "he makes my cherry pop," but "makin' panties drop" is bad, too? I do it every day, I must be a criminal! But seriously, we're too sensitive for that to be said on TV, but yet it's okay for ABC to air a film about 9/11 they know alters facts and claim it's based on reality? I'm not one for censorship, they can air whatever they want, but they shouldn't be distorting the truth of something so important. We hear all this crap about how the airwaves are supposed to belong to us, the public, so should the people we "entrust" with our intangible frequencies be lying to us?

Unrelated, but I'm predicting the return of prog rock. We should all shudder. Hints of it have been creeping up all year. There are some definite overtones of Yes on the upcoming Decemberists album, but we've also gotten recent singles from Muse ("Knights of Cydonia") and My Chemical Romance ("Welcome to the Black Parade") that skitter dangerously near the bloat of prog. Thankfully, those two songs owe more to Queen than Jethro Tull, but if you start hearing bands namedrop Rush in interviews, it's time to head for the hills.

Current Soundtrack: Beyoncé, B'Day

Current Mood: bitchy