Eyeballing Candy

Two interesting cds to recom this week--one a tv program from a few years ago, one a film.
Finally got around to watching 4 episodes of ART 21, a (largely) great series about contemporary art. The episodes I saw covered structure, memory, power and other themes, and I only nodded off during two artist segments. I got very excited about the cartoonish (apologies to the artist--adjective doesn't do it justice) figures of Laylah Ali, the macro video installations of Krysztof Wodiczko, Roni Horn's photos, Ellen Gallagher's films, Oliver Herring's photos and was blown away by the collages of Arturo Herrera. So cool!
Then I watched an Argentinian film called El Hijo de la Novia, or Son of the Bride (Juan Jose Campanella, 2001) starring Ricardo Darrin. In the interest of creating a spoiler, I won't say too much about it except that it has as its theme--yes, my favourite--redemption! Even the subtitles were well produced, so that the humour translated well culturally. I seem to be continually haunted by films about loving marriages, but that aside, it was very timely in its treatment of Alzheimer's disease, which had its poignant and funny moments. Highly recommend it, although I guess the R rating for language is valid.

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