Easy Listening with Chuckles and Goldilocks

When my pal Henry Owings of Chunklet Magazine mentioned the possibility of interviewing Paul F. Tompkins (of whom I've been a big fan since his Mr. Show days and whose album, Impersonal, has been a long time coming), I couldn't help but do a bit of research and hope nobody else grabbed the interview first. Though I wasn't the lucky soul who ended up interviewing Mr. Tompkins, in my brief research I came across this (above) great rendition of "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Tompkins and Aimee Mann (of whom I'm also a fan).

Trivia worthy: both of these talented crooners (Aimee just possibly a bit more talented than Paul in that department) have a connection to director Paul Thomas Anderson, she through the soundtrack of Magnolia, and he through his appearance in There Will Be Blood.

Well, Anyway, It's Good To See You Again

Keeping in the cinematic vein of the previous post, I feel compelled to give a double recommendation for the movies released lately by two (well, really three) of America's best modern filmmakers: Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen Brothers.

I hesitate to call the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men and Anderson's There Will Be Blood "comebacks," since I was never of the opinion that they'd really waned (I often feel people are too harsh on the Coen Brothers' latest films, and Anderson's Punch Drunk Love was an under-celebrated masterpiece of squirming acting, color, and sound). But to say that these two latest are two of their respective best I don't think is putting things too generously.

Above all, Anderson and the Coen Brothers are master storytellers who had me leaving the theatre inspired. It's good to see them back commanding the screen. Now back to cursing under my breath at previews until the next ones come out.