Francis Ford Coppola

I had seen theatrical screenings of The Godfather maybe two or three times before, and while the blemishes on those aging prints may have spoken to the ruin-porn enthusiast in me, there’s no denying they were a distracting real-world intrusion on a landmark work of fiction. For the 50th-anniversary restoration, it’s tempting to include the standard caveat about the magic inherent in film projection that’s lost in digital projection, but I’ve never been more convinced… See more →

On the Web

• 2008 Spooky Sock Monkeys: Kim Cornell’s annual crop of petrifying primates is already almost sold out!

In the Stereo

• Van Morrison: Moondance
• The Jackson 5: The Ultimate Collection
• Necrophagist: Epitaph
• The Supremes: The Ultimate Collection
• Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line
• Stiffs, Inc.: Nix Nought Nothing

On the Silver Screen

• Quarantine
• The Godfather: Part II

Okay, here’s a pretty charming concept: You’re a musician who combs estate sales for the personal slide collections of the deceased—family vacations, corporate presentations, educational slideshows, etc. You create stories from the photos, write songs to tell the stories, and project the slides on a screen as you perform their accompanying songs live. You sing and play guitar and keyboard, your wife runs the slide projector and designs the costumes, and your ten-year old daughter… See more →