My recent obsession with “Phantom of the Opera” has reintroduced me to Sarah Brightman, who played Christine in the original production. Sarah has a new DVD and TV special airing on PBS this month. I’m not much of a classical music fan, so admittedly, I’m biased toward her “Phantom” work more than anything else. But the “Diva” special (that’s what it’s called, don’t be mad!) showcases her other work as well, and her vocal talents really shine. I enjoyed the beautiful “Pie Jesu” at the beginning of the special. The video for “Phantom” was fun, albeit cheesy. But that’s the way I like it. Ask anyone who’s seen my home movies. :) Also included was the lovely “Wishing you were somehow here again.”
The one weakness of the special is that there was more “talk” than “action.” Sarah gives in-depth information about each of her videos, and in most cases these segments take just about as long as the video itself! Like the “Electric Company” special I wrote about last month, there’s a lot more material we could have seen, but didn‘t. As the PBS hosts will tell you (several times), there are more of her videos on the DVD than in the special.
You can check and see if the “Diva” special is airing in your area by following the link at Sarah’s web site: www.sarah-brightman.com
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Speaking of sadism, (or masochism, depending on your point of view), the “tv shows on dvd” web site announced on Dec. 1 that the U.S. version of “Men behaving badly” is coming to DVD. I rarely watched the show, but as a Justine Bateman fan, I am obligated to let the world know. Sigh. I do miss “Family Ties” sometimes. :) Actually, I would enjoy seeing Justine again. She’s still acting & most recently appeared in a movie on the Lifetime network.
Justine ranks up there along with Courteney Cox, Lea Thompson, Carrie Fisher and Sabrina LeBeauf as one of the “hot chicks of my teen years.” That’s not to say that they aren’t hot now. That just means that when I was a teen, these were some of the girls on TV that I - well, you know where I‘m going with this.
The DVD set is scheduled to be released in February. Keep checking tvshowsondvd.com for updates.
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Last month I rambled about Dr. Kent Hovind getting arrested for tax fraud. At the time I complained about Mr. Hovind’s attitude and his questionable priorities. Well, Kent is in prison and contributing to his blog at cseblogs.com (how he‘s doing this I'm not sure. Carrier pigeon, maybe?) It sounds as if he has made lemonade out of a very bad situation. Here‘s a quote from his site:
I have also been teaching math and science to some of the others. It is great to see convicted drug dealers get excited when they learn fourth grade level math for the first time. I have spent quite a bit of time with one 29-year-old man who cannot read at all. I have been teaching him phonics and we are reading Genesis 1, 2, 3 and John 1, 2, and 3. His face lights up when he sees that he can do it. I offer commissary items like soup or coffee to men who memorize Bible verses. There is no way to describe the joy that they show when they get it right. Many have never memorized scriptures in their life, and maybe that is why they are in jail. Scripture helps us to “cleanse our ways” Psalm 119:9-11.
I don’t support Mr. Hovind, but I do support people who help others. If Kent wants to help people learn mathematics and how to read, then I won’t razz him for doing that. Keep up the great work, Kent.
