© 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-jordan_tar Recent reviews written by member jordan_tar en-us 121 37 http://www.epinions.com/ http://img.epinions.com/images/epi_images/logos/epinions_121.gif http://www.epinions.com/content_485515628164?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Where does art begin - with devotion and planning and careful conception, or with wild seat-of-the-pants improvisation and moments of sudden inspiration? For John Cassavetes it was a subtle combination of the two: contrary to popular belief, most of his... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~485515628164 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:48:54 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_485515628164?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_412308573828?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - If anyone calls the Saw series "torture porn," one of the most tiresome phrases to enter into criticism in a while, they're talking out of ignorance. Far from glorying in unpleasant and gratuitous violence with no "substance," these movies deal so... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~412308573828 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 03:33:00 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_412308573828?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_412305755780?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I love nothing more than a good, horrifying slasher movie that enacts catharsis in the best way. But for success, such movies have to make a commitment - not to retreat into artsiness, since art comes at its own pace and its leisure, and just to portray... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~412305755780 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 03:01:28 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_412305755780?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_385232440964?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I can count on one hand the books that've made me cry - and take away my English major credentials, but Lisey's Story is one of them. This is an utterly satisfying tale of love and the mind's strange interiors - a novel so intimate it's almost... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~385232440964 Mon, 2 Jul 2007 20:34:15 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_385232440964?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_385231720068?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King admits to having once been dependent on cocaine to get his writing done. He's quit now, but it seems like the writing patterns inspired by the drug have kept up in the late novels of the Dark Tower... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~385231720068 Mon, 2 Jul 2007 20:12:29 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_385231720068?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_385189908100?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Paul Auster seems to me a bit of a one-hit wonder - or should I say, three-hit wonder? His New York Trilogy was pretty phenomenal, but nothing of his I've read since gives creedence to his high reputation (he was inexplicably given the task of... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~385189908100 Mon, 2 Jul 2007 18:30:44 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_385189908100?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_383522213508?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Stephen King's short story "1408" was a rare treat - a genuinely chilling, uncanny piece from someone whose talent at writing such things has been steadily on the wane for years. When I found out they were turning the story into a movie, my first thought... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~383522213508 Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:45:52 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_383522213508?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_382853680772?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Hearing anecdotes about directorial tyranny - Stanley Kubrick forcing Shelley Duvall to suffer through 127 takes of a single scene, for instance - one wonders what things must be like on the set. "Beware of a Holy Whore" offers an appealing... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~382853680772 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:10:36 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_382853680772?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_382848044676?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - This is my favorite collection of stories ever, written by a remarkably underrated master of fiction who pretty much scorns conventional narrative and characterization. Once you've read William H. Gass, it's almost impossible to approach less... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~382848044676 Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:35:50 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_382848044676?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_382339288708?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I just finished reading Philip Roth's latest novel Everyman, and I have to say I'm pretty sick of aging novelists painting themselves and their surrogate characters into affairs with younger women. This is the third time in the last decade or so... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~382339288708 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:46:45 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_382339288708?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_303108165252?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Depending on your perspective, Blank Tapes could seem obnoxiously indulgent, or else meditative and beautiful. Either way, it's a bit high-concept: the project here undertaken by the Argentinian band Reynols - who have also done things like... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~303108165252 Mon, 8 Jan 2007 00:53:45 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_303108165252?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_303106264708?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Musically, Paul Westerberg's solo albums rarely move beyond the tepid, and Eventually is no exception. His second solo album following 14 Songs, this would be a conventional boring modern rock album were it not for that voice and those... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~303106264708 Mon, 8 Jan 2007 00:20:13 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_303106264708?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_302860897924?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - A glorious fusion of pretension, absurd sexuality and experimentation, the Pack of Lies trilogy contains some of the most entertaining writing I've seen in ages. At its best, Sorrentino's prose blazes with energy; at their worst, these novels are... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~302860897924 Sun, 7 Jan 2007 12:19:46 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_302860897924?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_302587219588?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - You know the Wire - the music magazine dedicated to "Adventures in Modern Music"? I used to hang on their every word, but with their best-of-2006 list, they've really lost me - ranking the fey likes of Joanna Newsom and the music-as-wallpaper of... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~302587219588 Sat, 6 Jan 2007 22:01:39 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_302587219588?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_302585253508?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Over the past few months, Cecil Taylor has become one of my favorite jazz musicians: at first I found his stuff barely listenable, but then with Silent Tongues it all clicked. At his best, Taylor is capable of astonishingly smooth, hypnotic... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~302585253508 Sat, 6 Jan 2007 21:27:13 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_302585253508?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_284879588996?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Lately I find that the degree to which music induces physical illness can be taken as a benchmark of just how much I might eventually value it. Lately what little dub I've heard makes me feel, for lack of better words, raw - so I look forward to the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~284879588996 Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:03:03 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_284879588996?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_240578170500?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - A recent New York Times story drew the general public's attention to a nauseating musical development of which I've actually been aware for some time, but which I've tried my hardest to ignore: the popularization of drone metal in indie crowds. Mostly... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~240578170500 Thu, 6 Jul 2006 16:42:20 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_240578170500?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_224694210180?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I can think of few writers toward whom I'm more ambivalent than William Faulkner. I read his macabre story "A Rose for Emily" - a lurid account of necrophilia in a small town - when I was very young, and that story colored my impressions of Faulkner's... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~224694210180 Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:30:31 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_224694210180?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_224465751684?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I first read The Lime Twig a few months ago and thought nothing about it, until it began to haunt me every day and I knew I couldn't go another week without having this vile little gem for my shelf. John Hawkes is an experimental writer,... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~224465751684 Sun, 26 Mar 2006 22:36:18 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_224465751684?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_224455986820?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Eudora Welty's work always appeals to me much more in theory than in actual reading. She's so very urbane and gentle that I feel she'll never surprise me or set me ill at ease. But oddly enough, when I actually begin to read her work, moments jump out at... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~224455986820 Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:55:53 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_224455986820?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_185776836228?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - It's been a while since I was last chased by armed operatives, but I can tell you that on all the occasions of this sort I've faced, I never got into an elevator. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" puts its characters in an elevator during precisely such a... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~185776836228 Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:09:54 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_185776836228?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_185204969092?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - Race has reduced me to near-silence. Being white, the very thought of the issue fills me with paralyzing guilt. But that's just condescension, isn't it? But to say that is to look at the problem from my own privileged perspective. And around and around I... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~185204969092 Sat, 4 Jun 2005 11:55:24 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_185204969092?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_184654532228?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I'm seeing this band live in a few days; this will be my second time doing so. I suppose I should be ashamed to admit that, but I can't bring myself to dislike the Faint, despite their legions of obnoxious scene-kid fans, despite the breathtaking... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~184654532228 Sun, 29 May 2005 14:03:52 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_184654532228?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_184650206852?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - What kind of a person do you have to be to just sit down casually and listen to Merzbow? I picture this music playing in torture dungeons and the lowest caverns of hell, not suburban bedrooms. Merzbow is a mild-mannered Japanese man, Masami Akita, who... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~184650206852 Sun, 29 May 2005 12:44:37 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_184650206852?linkin_id=8003929 http://www.epinions.com/content_184646274692?linkin_id=8003929 rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author jordan_tar - I saw "Saw" (last time I use that phrase, I promise) on a date nearly seven months ago. To that extent it was an effective movie, allowing my squeamish companion plenty of opportunities to squeeze my hand in terror. Honestly I was so distracted by the... http://www.epinions.com/content/submit.html/comment_~184646274692 Sun, 29 May 2005 11:50:23 GMT http://www.epinions.com/content_184646274692?linkin_id=8003929