The friend I met for coffee today happens to be married to singer Teresa Carpio and is her manager. (Her Wikipedia entry states that she lives in Canada – but not so.) She’s just recorded and released her first English language CD in years and is quite happy with the results.

When he handed me the CD he said he knew this wasn’t my kind of music so if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to write about it. I put it on tonight and he’s right in that I don’t normally go for this kind of lighter pop music. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate an album that’s well sung, well played and well recorded and this album certainly is all of that. And while I’m no fan of the Carpenters, Teresa’s version of Rainy Days and Mondays, the opening track, has the kind of vocal phrasing that keeps the melody line intact but shows that she thought about how to sing this, how to make this version hers, how to add just a little unique touch here and there. So if you’re a fan of this kind of pop or songs like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Lionel Richie’s Hello and so on, you could do a lot worse than to pick this up. It’s even available in the US via iTunes!

The album was produced by Michael Thompson, who also played most of the instruments. If you look at the discography on his web site, the list of people he’s played with in the past 20 years just goes on and on – Neil Diamond, Joe Cocker, Anita Baker, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, Babyface, Toni Braxton, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Stanley Clarke, Christina Aguilera, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles … he’s been there, done that.

And my gf only had to hear one song before she asked me to rip the CD and put it on her iPhone. So there you go.

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Also tonight watched the new Blu-Ray edition of Gladiator. It’s one of two new releases in Paramount’s new “Sapphire Series” – the other being Braveheart. After reading the comparison review on DVDBeaver, I had to get both of these. And man oh man are they right when they say that “this is an incredible digital achievement.” The video quality can “make some swoon” and the audio “is ABSOLUTELY perfect.”

These guys at DVDBeaver are no push-overs – they do these in-depth comparisons between all available versions of a film, complete with screen captures from each version. This is the web site I check before I buy almost any Blu-Ray.

And the video quality of Gladiator is every bit as stunning as the review claims. So richly detailed, the clarity and the color simply amazing. This is the kind of disc you buy a Blu-Ray player for.

You can watch the theatrical cut or the extended cut and choose to watch them branching into 43 separate mini-docs on various points of interest. Or put in the 2nd disc (which I haven’t yet) which includes a 3 hour 15 minute making of documentary plus a 25 minute HBO special, an hour long Learning Channel special, a half hour “evening with” Russell Crowe, a 20 minute doc on Hans Zimmer, additional featurettes covering storyboards, costumes, production design, a 23 minute doc on the special effects … the list just goes on and on.

Paramount has actually “out-Criterioned” Criterion here. Of course in the end it all depends on whether or not you care for the film but I like Ridley Scott when he’s in his “big” mode.

Oh, here’s their comparison review on Braveheart if you’re curious.

Hongkie Town
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