The TBA review of fine arts

... Mrs. TBA adores Woody Allen, so we went to see Midnight in Paris, perhaps the first movie I've seen people actually get up and walk out of. It was bad, but enjoyably so -- don't want to spoil it for anyone as unfamiliar with the plot as I was going in, but the actor playing a certain pugnacious writer was an absolute hoot (always talking in his narrative voice), and Adrien Brody's cameo was almost as good. That's one of the good things about being Woody Allen: your talent may have declined, but you call up great performers and ask 'em, "hey, wanna be in Woody Allen's next movie?" and you get a lot of acceptances, I suspect.

... TBA was unaware of the existence of Joss Stone until we noted the failed plot of some sword-toting men to kidnap or kill her. Yes, that's what the lack of a Second Amendment has reduced UK thugs to: swords. Anyway, on a whim, we picked up Mind, Body and Soul, and damn if that little white British girl hasn't got a voice on her. Now TBA is embarrassed that our only soul album is by a white person, and wondering who's good in contemporary soul/R&B.

... Don't you love turning out to've had a good excuse not to read a book yet? The English translation of Lem's Solaris, it turns out, was rendered from the French, not the original Polish. But now we have a direct, and one hopes improved, translation. THAT is what I was waiting for! (Via Crispin, who looks forward to buying a copy that "won't have George Clooney's face all over it.")