What's Playin' Here

Joel and Ethan Coen's screenplay of "Blood Simple". How can anyone write this good?
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Kuknoor's "Iqbal": If the underdogs are always winning, why are they still called "underdogs"? Sorry but I think it's time we have a film celebrating the rich, arrogant overdog.

The film is described by most people as "sweet". Why? "Sweet" is the equivalent of "nice" and "interesting". Just because a film lacks an antagonist (which in this case is presumably the environment, the lineage and the economic realities - holy moly, that's some antagonism!) does not by itself make it "sweet". Still, Naseer's "go to hell" dialogue was worth the $1 rental fee. And no, bouncing a cricket ball off those buffaloes is just not cool (sayeth the man who masticated almost an entire goat to a juiceless pulp over the weekend.)
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Petra Haden, daughter of jazz basist Charlie Haden, doing a jaw-dropping rendition of The Who's "I Can See For Miles". It's an a capella re(de?)construction of a song I love dearly. Every guitar lick, every chord progression and every rhythm guitar strum is recreated with voices. Ms. Haden's version and the original song appear in succession on the iPod. What fun. Google around to find the mp3.
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How's this for an insane, far-out idea: a Tuvan throat-singing punk band singing Motorhead and Joy Division songs. I have 2 Mp3s of Yat-Kha singing Motorhead's classic "Orgasmatron" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". It is plain nuts is what it is. I dozed off with the ear-buds still in my ear and those creepy low-frequency vocals gave me nightmares all through the night. You can download those 2 amazing covers here. Listen now, thank me later.
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