Terry Adams, Talk Thelonious. Would anyone in their right mind take on Thelonious Monk for an entire album? Well, “right mind” and Terry Adams sometimes seem mutually exclusive, which is all the better for those committed to hearing great music. This album’s subtitle says it all: “NRBQ + plays Terry Adams arrangements of Thelonious Monk songs.” The pianist/founder of NRBQ...
Album Reviews: Frank Sinatra – A Voice on Air (1935-1955) and Lost & Found: The Radio Years
Until now, there have arguably been four essential box sets for Sinatra fans: The Song Is You, covering his early work with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra; The Best of the Columbia Years, which documents his first great period as a soloist from 1943 to 1952; The Capitol Years, which showcases his superb work with arranger/composer Nelson Riddle and others;...
Blu-ray Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Extended Edition
As someone who’s always been a bit indifferent to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, I can go out on a very thin limb and say that—for pure entertainment value—I enjoy watching The Hobbit films more than the adventures of Frodo. There. Got that off my chest. The Lord of the Rings trilogy strikes me as pompous, overly serious,...
Gadget Review: Oyen Digital’s MiniPro USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive for Nintendo’s Wii U
Anyone who has a Wii U will know that it doesn’t come with much storage space by big console standards. By the time you’ve downloaded a couple of games from the Nintendo eStore, most of the space has been eaten up. While it’s possible to add external storage, that’s a bit of a crap shoot because Nintendo names only a...
Game of Thrones Gets More Awesomeness with Steelbook BD Releases
Games of Thrones fans have been given something to get excited about just in time for the gift-getting season in the form of limited edition steelbook releases of the HBO series’ first and season seasons. The new Steelbook Collectors Sets from HBO Home Entertainment have box art designed by Elastic, the agency responsible for the show’s opening credits. The art...
Software Review: Air Parrot 2 for Windows 10
Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast have become the de facto standards for mobile device streaming. Yet, Windows 10 still lacks an inbuilt streaming system that is as widely available and easy to use. Microsoft’s latest OS will stream media to an Xbox or Miracast device but DLNA compatibility is a mixed bag and configuring a connection isn’t always straightforward. Moreover,...
DVD Review: Hidden (2015)
New to DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is the thriller Hidden. Written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, Hidden plays like an overextended Twilight Zone episode. And not a particularly clever episode, at that. Granted a very under-the-radar, direct-to-video release by Warner, one gets the feeling that even the distributor knew this was kind of a waste of...
Gadget Review: Insignia 8-inch 32 GB Microsoft Windows Tablet
Given that the cheapest brand-name tablets on the market currently retail for around $300, it’s hard to believe you can get anything half-decent for half that price. Hence, Best Buy’s $130 8-inch Insignia Windows tablet comes as something of a surprise. Like most tablets in the same price bracket, it’s chunky and has a low resolution screen (1280 x 800...
Bentley’s Bandstand: October 2015
Sam Butler, Raise Your Hands! Sometimes a new album comes from so far out in left field it doesn’t even show up on incoming radar. It just hits like a full force gale, and doesn’t stop making a stand and raising sand. Sam Butler has been the guitarist in the Blind Boys of Alabama for many years, and before that...
DVD Review: The Killers (1946 and 1964) – The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection recently issued a double-feature containing both the 1946 and 1964 versions of the film noir classic The Killers, loosely based on a 1927 short story by Ernest Hemingway. Each film is a classic in its own right, so kudos to Criterion for resisting any temptation to release them separately. On top of it, they’ve included director Andrei...