Saturday, September 22, 2012

TV – Weekly William Shatner Double “Bill”: Double the Bill, Double the Thrill

If you’re as much of a Shatfan as I am, then you’ll be thrilled to know that you can watch William Shatner every Monday through Saturday in all his scenery-chewing and over-the-top gut-busting glory in two different decades in two different uniforms.

First up, Shatner’s heyday (shortly before he became a self-parodying, perpetually wealth-generating cottage industry unto himself) came in the 1980s, when—at the same time he was reprising his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek movies—he pounded the pavement and cleaned the streets of slimy scum as the titular no-nonsense police sergeant in T.J. Hooker, airing weeknights at 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday at 3:00 a.m., and Fridays at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Universal HD.

Shatner as a uniformed police officer is about as high-concept as you can get, making this the best cop show of all time. Shatner often gets touted for his peerless hood jumping, but he was quite adept behind the wheel as well. He could drift (brake-skidding the car on fast turns) with the best of them. And who could forget that Shatastic ‘80s perm? (Was it real or was it a hairpiece? Find out at www.shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com.) The series also stars the adorably smug Adrian Zmed, a very fresh-faced Heather Locklear, and Shatner’s fellow aging pretty boy James Darren.

Then, catch Shatner two decades earlier in his first iteration of Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, which airs Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. on Me TV (Memorable Entertainment Television). Nothing beats Shatner hamming philosophic about the quandaries of mankind’s place in the universe, all the while sporting a ‘60s-style “straight-laced” coiffure (again—real or fake? Check out www.shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com). Shatner’s partners in pop cultural perpetuity include Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei.

So don’t forget to enjoy William Shatner in two of his most memorable TV roles. Tune in six nights (and four early mornings) a week, same Shat time, same Shat channel! (Actually, that’s five different times on two different channels – see above.)

--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, September 16, 2012

CD Review – Beyond the Turning, by Heidi Breyer


Heidi Breyer unleashes a tour-de-force of musicality that leaves strong and vivid impressions long after the last note plays.
 
The sensitive pianist really ups the ante on this offering with a stellar lineup of top-notch musicians that makes the compositions come alive with passion. The CD starts off with a tender duet between Breyer’s comforting keys and David Cullen’s searing electric guitar tones.
 
From there, the album provides a steady flow of pensive emotion sustained by intricate solo, duo, and trio performances. Breyer’s collaborators include Cullen on acoustic guitar, Charlie Bisharat on violin, Eugene Friesen on cello, Jill Haley on English horn, Samite on vocals, flutes, and adungu (a nine-string African harp), Premik Russell-Tubbs on lyricon and saxophone, Bob Colwell on accordion, Marc Enfroy on string group coordination, Max MacFarland and Michael Manring on bass, Steve Holley on drums, and Jeff Haynes on percussion.
 
In coordinating all of this musical chemistry, Breyer has created a unique album of exotic sounds and deep personal insight whose appeal will reach far and wide beyond just fans of piano music.
 
--Raj Manoharan

Saturday, September 15, 2012

CD Retro (Fan) Review – Up Close, by Eric Johnson

Since Eric Johnson's Up Close tour is still going strong in 2012, I decided to revisit my review of the December 2010 release, which I'll be listening to again this week.

The seventh studio album from Grammy Award-winning Texas guitar hero Eric Johnson is quite the trip. Like his other CDs a mix of instrumentals and vocal songs mostly penned by him and showcasing his unique virtuosity on the electric guitar, Up Close includes some of the best work that Johnson has ever written and recorded.

The album is dripping with crackling guitars. If a guitar died and went to heaven, this is what heaven would sound like. Johnson is on fire, effortlessly weaving incredible, sparkling solos in and out of both the instrumental and vocal tracks. The vocal songs range from energetic blues and rock numbers to gorgeous, heartfelt ballads. Inspired like never before, Johnson plays and sings with a fervor not present in his previous work. Perhaps Johnson is like a fine vintage wine, improving with age.

I was first introduced to the music of Johnson 22 years ago by an employee at a local cable television station I was interning at during my senior year of high school. That was the year Johnson, then 36 years old, released his breakthrough second album, Ah Via Musicom, which achieved the distinction of having three instrumental songs reach the American Top Ten.

As accomplished and groundbreaking as Ah Via Musicom and its edgier and sonically more expansive 1996 follow-up, Venus Isle, are, Johnson has really poured his living, breathing essence into Up Close. The result is the best guitar-based album of the last several years, and one of the best guitar-based and general music albums of all time.

With Up Close, Johnson is at the top of his game as a guitarist, composer, and singer. He has created a masterwork of soulful jazz/pop/rock fusion that exudes passion, especially through his trademark virtuosic guitar sound. Even with guest vocals by Malford Milligan, Steve Miller, and Johnny Lang, and guitar performances by Jimmie Vaughan, Steve Hennig, and Sonny Landreth, the album is clearly all Eric Johnson up close front and center.

--Raj Manoharan

TV – Retro TV Roundup

If the current slate of programming on broadcast, cable, satellite, and pay TV hasn’t caught your fancy, there are plenty of old favorites to catch up and relive the good old days with on the slew of retro television networks that are booming in popularity.

First up, you can watch William Shatner in all his scenery-chewing and over-the-top gut-busting glory in two different decades in two different uniforms. Shatner’s heyday (shortly before he became a self-parodying, perpetually wealth-generating cottage industry unto himself) came in the 1980s, when—at the same time he was reprising his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek movies—he pounded the pavement and cleaned the streets of slimy scum as no-nonsense police sergeant T.J. Hooker.

Shatner as a uniformed police officer is about as high-concept as you can get, making this the best cop show of all time. Shatner often gets touted for his peerless hood jumping, but he was quite adept behind the wheel as well. He could drift (brake-skidding the car on fast turns) with the best of them. The series, which also stars the adorably smug Adrian Zmed, a very fresh-faced Heather Locklear, and fellow aging pretty boy James Darren, airs weeknights at 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday at 3:00 a.m., and Fridays at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Universal HD.

Then, catch Shatner two decades earlier in his first iteration of Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, which airs Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. on Me TV (Memorable Entertainment Television). Nothing beats Shatner hamming philosophic about the quandaries of mankind’s place in the universe. Remarkably, 46 years after the show’s debut, with the exception of DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty), the other five main cast members are still with us.

By the way, if you love classic television, Me TV should be your first and last stop on the dial. In addition to featuring scores of classic television shows, the network features brilliant commercials touting its various slogans composed entirely of expertly spliced-together clips from all of its shows. This is the ultimate TV channel for the ultimate TV fan.

Between Me TV and Antenna TV, weekend afternoons and evenings make for a veritable bonanza of retro classics. Saturdays and Sundays on Antenna TV, Martin Milner and Kent McCord patrol the streets of Los Angeles as Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed on Adam-12 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Then, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan take over as Los Angeles plainclothes detectives Joe Friday and Bill Gannon on Dragnet from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Saturdays on Me TV, Adam West and Burt Ward star as the caped-crusading dynamic duo Batman and Robin, who race in the Batmobile to save Gotham City from a comical cavalcade of costumed crackpots, with little help from a hilariously inept police force, in the 1960s pop cultural phenomenon Batman. The show airs at 7:00 p.m. and is followed by Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space at 8:00 p.m. and Star Trek at 9:00 p.m.

You can take your pick of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale as the various Dark Knights (Keaton and Bale are my personal favorite modern movie Batmen), but no matter what the fanboys naysay, Adam West (who also played Batman on the big screen) made the most indelible and lasting mark of any of them on pop culture. He is the one Batman to rule them all.

Check your local listings or go online to learn about all the great classic shows airing on Antenna TV, Me TV, TV Land, and Universal HD.

--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, September 9, 2012

CD Review – Los Angeles Blues, by Ciro Hurtado

Equipped with only a single acoustic guitar, acclaimed veteran six-stringer Ciro Hurtado unleashes a full, rich plethora of sound that fuses global styles as diverse as the Americas, the British Isles, and continental Europe.

Hurtado combines the Andes mountain music of his Peruvian homeland with the trappings of Spanish flamenco, American folk music, and the snappy jazz of his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. The influences of Celtic music and childhood rock ‘n’ roll favorites such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin can also be heard in his vibrant compositions.

This blend of the exotic and the familiar makes the album instantly accessible and enjoyable. Listeners can revel in musical motifs that they recognize while broadening their musical horizons thanks to Hurtado’s international flavorings.

Hurtado’s playing is just as inspired and invigorating as his writing. Using just one acoustic guitar on the entire recording, Hurtado employs his all-encompassing finger-style approach to create a full spectrum of chords, melodies, and rhythms on each track.

Hurtado has produced a solo guitar album that is easily one of the best in the genre, one that can be enjoyed over and over from beginning to end.

--Raj Manoharan

Saturday, September 8, 2012

TV – Star Trek, Which Turns 46 Today, Keeps on Trekkin’ on Me TV

Forty-six years ago today, William Shatner logged his first Stardate entry as Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise on NBC’s Star Trek, and there’s no better way to celebrate than watching an episode of the classic show tonight at 9:00 p.m. on Me TV.

The groundbreaking program initiated a sci-fi and pop cultural phenomenon that would trek far beyond anyone’s expectations.

Shatner played Kirk during Star Trek’s 1966-1969 run, later voicing the role on the 1973-1975 NBC Saturday morning cartoon and then returning as the character in live action for seven big-budget theatrical motion pictures from 1979 to 1994. Most of Shatner’s fellow original series actors accompanied him on these later adventures, with nearly the entire cast starring together in Star Treks I through VI.

The franchise has lived long and prospered beyond Shatner’s participation, with four additional television series spanning 18 consecutive years, as well as four additional movies and counting.

Shatner hasn’t done badly for himself, either. He has maintained the highest, most visible profile of any Star Trek actor, writing several Star Trek and other science fiction novels as well as multiple memoirs and autobiographies, and starring in several TV shows, including T.J. Hooker, Rescue 911, TekWar, and Boston Legal. Let’s not forget Shatner’s long-running stint as the spokesman for Priceline.com, the latest incarnation being his role as the Priceline Negotiator.

Shatner’s career can basically be divided into two phases: Star Trek and William Shatner.

But Star Trek is where it all began, 46 years ago today.

--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, September 2, 2012

CD Review – These Are the Moments, by Michael Dulin

Michael Dulin presents a collection of fifteen piano performances from his six previous albums over the last decade, punctuated by a new bonus track for the occasion of this retrospective.

The prolific, veteran musician delivers stunning renditions of Rachmaninoff, Satie, and Beethoven, alongside which his own compositions stand tall and proud. In fact, the influence of these composers is evident in Dulin’s writing, which features his own unique musical voice.

Dulin also demonstrates his masterful command of various styles, switching effortlessly between solo piano numbers, duets, and trios, giving us a taste of his equal adroitness in classical, new age, and smooth jazz. The new bonus track, the music of which is composed by Dulin, also features lyrics and vocals by Jeania Major, a singing finalist in auditions for Cirque de Soleil. The combination of Major’s voice and Dulin’s keyboard skills is simply exquisite.

This is a fine album for anyone interested in piano-based music with a few different flavors.

--Raj Manoharan