© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc. This feed is subject to our terms of use: http://www.epinions.com/help/rss_terms http://www.epinions.com/user-Stephen_Murray Recent reviews written by member Stephen_Murray en-us 121 37 http://www.epinions.com/ http://img.epinions.com/images/epi_images/logos/epinions_121.gif http://www.epinions.com/content_476266270340?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - William Trevor, born in 1928 in County Cork, Ireland, is a much acclaimed writer of short stories. Those I've read in the New Yorker have not inspires me to seek out any of his collections of stories or novels. One of the latter, Felicia's... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476266270340 Sat, 4 Jul 2009 19:14:22 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476266270340?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_476168228484?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - "James' Journey to Jerusalem" (Massa'ot James Be'eretz Hakodesh, 2004), directed and cowritten by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz is in some ways very sweet... and in others a horror story of greed and present-day slavery and the corruption of the heretofore pure... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~476168228484 Fri, 3 Jul 2009 21:24:11 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_476168228484?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475797622404?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I think that Gramophone in particular and other English publications (and media: the BBC) overhype English music and musicians, Nigel Kennedy, for instance. A younger and far less bratty violinist, Hilary Hahn has been hailed as the Second Coming... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475797622404 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:27:20 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475797622404?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475670941316?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Having read The Tin Drum and the other two Danzig novels by Günter Grass (Cat and Mouse, Dog Years) while I was in college and, maybe, some later novels or parts of later novels, I've long considered Grass a "one-hit wonder." Quite a... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475670941316 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:48:55 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475670941316?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475545636484?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I have heard less than a quarter of the 67 symphonies composed by Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000). They don't all sound the same (as concerti by Vivaldi or Telemann come close to doing) though dreamy (proto-New Age) interludes, protracted crescendi, ... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475545636484 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:16:37 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475545636484?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475383762564?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - the 2003 neo-noir  "PTU" (Police Tactical Unit) is highly stylized even for a Johnnie To (To Kei-Fung) movie. As usual in his police/criminal movies,  nocturnal Hong Kong is astonishingly empty of people on the streets. I think there were more... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475383762564 Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:25:06 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475383762564?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_475089440388?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - An uninspired recording can make one (me, at least) mentally write off the music recorded. For instance, I had a very inferior recording of the Sibelius violin concerto that for some years kept me from listening to what has become one of my two favorite... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~475089440388 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:55:10 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_475089440388?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474998083204?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Written in 1946-47 and not making its way into English until 1968, Victor Serge's Unforgiving Years is almost as remarkable as Irène  Némirovsky's Suite Française, written in... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474998083204 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:52:01 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474998083204?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474405441156?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - "Cheung Fo" (which means Gunfire, but which is titled "The Mission" in English), 1999, directed by Johnnie To/To Kei-Fung) begins bewilderingly. Hit men are trying to kill someone (Ko Hung) in the Super Bowl  restaurant. The someone hides in a... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474405441156 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:10:53 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474405441156?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_474161057412?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I have worked my way through the 2008 movies with performances nominated for best actress Oscars (Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married," Angelina Jolie in "The Changeling",... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~474161057412 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:11:22 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_474161057412?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473936662148?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Once upon a time (1982) Cantonese-American Wayne Wang made a very low-budget, black-and-white movie in San Francisco's Chinatown that delighted the audience for independent films and fresh voices. Wang went on to film good adaptations of two major works... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473936662148 Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:42:06 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473936662148?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473713118852?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I read The Call of the Wild (1903) while I was in grade school and some Jack London stories more recently. I don't think that I'd read or tried to read his 1904 best-seller The Sea Wolf before this week. Though it has one fearsome... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473713118852 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:21:46 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473713118852?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473611406980?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Idiosyncratic Preface (for those who read my epinions sequentially):I was not expecting Clint Eastwood's (2008) "Gran Torino" to have so many continuities with the movie I watched and epined about just before it: Johnnie To's "... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473611406980 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:35:39 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473611406980?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473476271748?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I am roughly a decade late in recognizing that Hong Kong director Johnnie To and singer-turned-actor Andy Lau had an extraordinary creative partnership like that of John Ford with John Wayne or Akira Kurosawa with Toshiro Mifune. The latter instance is... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473476271748 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:44:34 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473476271748?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473372724868?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Mahbod Seraji's autobiographical first novel about growing up amidst people in Iran angry about the reign of terror of the US-imposed Shah, Rooftops of Tehran, is a mix of romance, rebellions (adolescent and adult), and severe repressions... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473372724868 Tue, 9 Jun 2009 15:33:25 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473372724868?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473372593796?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Published by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, the reading level of Dale Peck's novel Sprout is gauged "young adult." With this intended audience, the "f-word" is only used once, and there is no graphic sexual description—though there is no... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473372593796 Tue, 9 Jun 2009 15:27:02 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473372593796?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473311645316?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Season Three of the Showtime marijuana-dealing comedy "Weeds" ended with a Götterdamerung-like finale. At the start of Season Four Nancy Botwin )Mary-Louise Parker) and her sons Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) and her dead... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473311645316 Tue, 9 Jun 2009 02:24:32 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473311645316?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473289821828?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - My recent music epinions have been about recordings of music with which I had no familiarity previous to listening to the recordings. I am fairly sure that I heard Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) conduct his Third Symphony here (with the San Francisco... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473289821828 Mon, 8 Jun 2009 21:58:05 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473289821828?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473170087556?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Originally recorded in 1991, the London Gabrieli Brass Ensemble's "From the Steeples and the Mountains: American Music for Brass" is an unusual musical experience. As the CD's cover photo shows, depending on where the steeple is, the distance to the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473170087556 Sun, 7 Jun 2009 21:38:58 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473170087556?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_473133059716?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - I was interested in watching "Went the Day Well?", a 1942 British movie about foiling a group of German paratroopers disguised as British soldiers first because it was based on "The Lieutenant Died Last," a story by Graham Greene (The Third Man, The... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~473133059716 Sun, 7 Jun 2009 14:16:23 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_473133059716?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_472978722436?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - "Ovce od gipsa" (in Croatian; "Witnesses "in English, 2003), written and directed by  Croatian actor/writer/director Vinko Bresnan is one of those films in which a story is told multiple times. It was far less clear to me whose account/viewpoint was... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~472978722436 Sat, 6 Jun 2009 03:12:21 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_472978722436?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_472677846660?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Between 1955 and 1992 the Armenian-Scottish-American composer Alan Hovhaness [Chakmakjian] (1911-2000) wrote 66 symphonies and rewrote one earlier one. Perhaps there are some people in Seattle who have heard them all. I have recordings of nine and have... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~472677846660 Wed, 3 Jun 2009 15:22:13 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_472677846660?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_472591208068?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Q: Which of the following performes does not belong in a western?Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons, Viggo Mortensen, or Renée ZellweggerHad I been asked in advance of seeing the western, "Appaloosa"  (2008) directed (cowritten, and... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~472591208068 Tue, 2 Jun 2009 20:31:28 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_472591208068?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_472578494084?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Matt Damon's first major role was as 2nd Lt. Britton Davis in "Geronimo: An American Legend" (1993). No, he did not play the title character! He was, however, the narrator, who observed the mostly tragic events of Geronimo's two surrenders and the bad... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~472578494084 Tue, 2 Jun 2009 18:03:01 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_472578494084?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_472442572420?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Stephen_Murray - Leering trombones, then skittering trumpets, then silence, some chimes, then skittering woodwinds, sliding trombones and a building cacophony: what is it? Nothing less than the birth of the cosmos at the start of the "Vishnu" 19th Symphony by... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~472442572420 Mon, 1 Jun 2009 14:43:00 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_472442572420?linkin_id=8003929