A few days ago I ordered the new Elvis Costello CD from Amazon.ca. Here's a review that I found online.


My Flame Burns Blue, Elvis Costello
Review by Jim Bessman, Associated Press

Genre-crossing Elvis Costello here succeeds in mixing his serrated rock, sophisticated pop, jazz and classical pursuits on his latest album, "My Flame Burns Blue."

The multidimensional outing was recorded in concert at The Hague in 2004 with the Metropole Orkest, Holland's famed jazz orchestra (a bonus disc excerpts "Il Sogno," the 2004 ballet score Costello wrote and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra).

Upping the appeal to Costellophiles, most performances are songs heretofore unreleased by the prolific singer-songwriter, or infrequently performed odds and ends.

Lead cut "Hora Decubitis" merits special note, as it involves Costello's post-9/11, life-affirming words to music by late jazz great Charles Mingus.

The title track likewise features his lyrics for Duke Ellington collaborator Billy Strayhorn's final composition.

Costello's music, meanwhile, ranges from the intriguingly arty "Speak Darkly, My Angel," which he penned originally for opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter, to the sparing ballad "Upon a Veil of Midnight Blue."

He wrote the latter song for blues stylist Charles Brown and showcases his own pop/jazz vocal mastery.

And if all this is too challenging for fans of his traditional rock quartet format, longtime keyboard accompanist Steve Nieve is there to help reinvent a few Costello classics, including a horn-fueled "Watching the Detectives."

Here's an excellent "Letter to the Editor" that David had published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix yesterday.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I want to show support for city council’s decision to approve funding for the interchange at the Stonegate development not because I think another Wal-Mart in Saskatoon is a good thing, but because it will give the overworked parking enforcers in the downtown area a much-needed break.

The coming of a Wal-Mart on Saskatoon’s southeast side, with its obligatory vast parking lot, will allow thousands of drivers a chance to avoid paying parking fees and tickets in downtown because soon there really won’t be any reason to shop there, anyway.

Why? Because those Wal-Marts will have driven most downtown merchants out of business or allowed the owners an opportunity to have their buildings razed for many uses such as yet another condo development, another parking lot, or another provincial or federal government office building.

Of course another reason those downtown businesses might have been forced to close is Wal-Mart’s unfair and unethical business practices.

Oh yes, I support city council’s approval of the new Wal-Mart development. Now the parking enforcers can spend their days as greeters at that store. I guess another Wal-Mart in Saskatoon will be a good thing, after all.

David Creelman

One of the best things about last night's Academy Awards show was the host, Jon Stewart. The worst thing was the fact that "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won the Oscar for best song.

Gay Penguins Too Much For Missouri Towns
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
March 4, 2006 - 4:00 pm ET

(Savannah, Missouri) A popular children's book about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin has been moved out of the children's sections of two local libraries after parents complained it promoted homosexuality.

"And Tango Makes Three," is based on a true story of two male penguins, named Roy and Silo, who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City's Central Park Zoo in the late 1990s.

The book, written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, was moved to the non-fiction sections of Rolling Hills' Consolidated Library's branches in Savannah and St. Joseph in northwest Missouri.

Silo and Roy are chinstrap penguins. They set up housekeeping together and for six years were completely devoted to each other and inseparable.

Their chief keeper, Rob Gramzay discovered that the couple put a rock simulating an egg in their nest and sat on it, keeping it warm in the folds of their abdomens.

Gramzay finally gave them a fertile egg that needed care to hatch. Things went perfectly. Roy and Silo sat on it for the typical 34 days until a chick, Tango, was born. For the next two and a half months they raised Tango, keeping her warm and feeding her food from their beaks until she could go out into the world on her own.

Zoologists say that it is an over simplification to call the penguins gay, but exactly what bound the two, and other examples of same-sex relationships among animals remains a mystery.

Early last year, after "And Tango Makes Three" was written the penguin couple broke up. For a brief period Roy lived with a female penguin.

©365Gay.com 2006

Last night I watched the Academy Awards with David and Judy. I was glad that "Brokeback Mountain" won three awards, but I was very disappointed that Felicity Huffman didn't win for her leading role in "Transamerica". The winner, Reese Witherspoon, was excellent as June Carter in "Walk the Line", but Huffman's character (a man trying to become a woman) was much more challenging to play.

3 Oscars For 'Brokeback Mountain'
by Brent Ko, 365Gay.com Los Angeles Bureau
March 6, 2006 - 12:01 am ET

(Los Angeles, California) "Brokeback Mountain" won three of the eight categories for which it was nominated at Sunday nights Academy Awards.

Ang Lee was rewarded with a best director Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain" and paid tribute to the film's main characters.

"Their names are Ennis and Jack. They taught all of us so much, not just about all the gay men and women in our society but just as important - the greatness of love itself."

Brokeback scriptwriters Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove") and Diana Ossana won best adapted screenplay, and Gustavo Santaolalla picked up an Oscar for his "Brokeback Mountain" musical score.

"Love makes us all so similar despite our differences Santaolalla said as he accepted his award.
The cowboy lovers were passed over. In the best actor category Heath Ledge was topped by "Capote" star Philip Seymour Hoffman for his performance as the gay writer.

George Clooney won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in the thriller "Syriana," beating out Brokeback's Jake Gyllenhaal.

In his acceptance speech Clooney noted that many of the films nominated this year had been criticized for being out of touch with mainstream America. It was a complaint Clooney rejected.
"We are the ones who talked about AIDS," he said. "We were the ones who talked about racism when no one else did."

"I'm proud to be part of this academy, proud to be part of this community, proud to be out of touch."

"Brokeback Mountain" had been the favorite for best picture but the Oscar went to "Crash".
Brokeback's best adapted screenplay award meant that openly gay writer Tony Kushner was passed over.

Kushner (Angels in America) co-wrote Munich with Eric Roth.

In the best actress category, Felicity Huffman as a transitioning transsexual in “Transamerica lost out to Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line”.

The Oscar opening sequence featured a humorous montage of previous hosts declining this year's invitation - including Billy Crystal and Chris Rock in a "Brokeback Mountain" tent - and winding up with Jon Stewart in bed with George Clooney.

In his monologue Stewart used best-picture nominee "Capote," about gay author Truman Capote, to set up a "Brokeback Mountain" joke, noting the film "showed America not all gay people are virile cowboys. Some are actually effete New York intellectuals. It's true."

Although it was a mixed bag for awards for LGBT themed films this was the first year that three movies with strong representations of gay and trans characters were nominated for Academy Awards.

©365Gay.com 2006