#the orchestral version is amazing you can hear every one of those violins putting their whole violussy into it

[misstiramisssu]

Every time I listen to Bazelgeuse's theme I always think about how hard the strings are going like damn your arm must be hurting but you're really making this shit slap continue

[thebuckblogimo]

My Ten All-Time Favorite Albums.

July 17, 2020

I’ve previously written that one of my roommates during senior year in college was a very musically-oriented guy. Rick, the original “Buddman,” Budd was from Pittsburgh, PA. As a kid he learned how to harmonize from his Dad who was a totally-into-it barbershopper. In high school the Buddman sang in a doo wop group called the Del Renos. In college he played the Hammond B3 organ for the Paramounts, the only soul band on the Michigan State University campus during the late ‘60s. Later in life he helped form a doo wop group, Deke and the Blazers, that did some national touring. It also bears mentioning that Rick could play the piano by ear. After downing eight or ten Rolling Rocks, he would fall forward, bang the keyboard with his head, and play those 88s with his ear. Just kidding, folks. Kinda, sorta...

The Buddman recently listed his ten favorite albums of all time on Facebook. He included some interesting background and personal insights with his selections. He then suggested I do the same. I took him up on the challenge, but it turned out to be a more difficult task than I had anticipated. It was hard for me to compare music from the ‘50 and ‘60s to music recorded many years later. And it was not easy to narrow my list down to ten. Nevertheless, I finally did so. I’m not on Facebook, so I’ve listed my top ten here:

1) A Package of 16 Big Hits (Motown)--This 1963 release was Berry Gordy’s very first compilation album. I associate many of its tracks with getting my driver's license at 16 and bombing around Detroit in my Dad's new Pontiac Bonneville. I think it's so good because all of the songs were recorded before Motown began to rely on a formula that employed funk brother Jack Ashford's incessant tambourine. Almost every tune on this record sounds different from the next. For example, Marvin Gaye's "Stubborn Kind of Fella" showcases the Vandellas singing background vocals and flautist Beans Bowles playing a distinctive solo. While Mary Wells' "The One Who Really Loves You" features an arrangement that includes a hint of vibraphone, some sweet piano, a syncopated conga drum and background harmonies provided by an obscure group called the Love Tones. Another unique cut is "Come and Get These Memories" by Martha and the Vandellas. It sounds unlike any other tune the group recorded after it. The LP's original cover graphic is really cool, too--a package wrapped in kraft paper and "stamped" in postal fashion with the names of the tunes and the artists who performed them. 2) Live at the Apollo, Volume II (James Brown)--It was Rick Budd who first took me to the bridge and dropped me into the funk of James Brown, the "godfather of soul" and the "hardest working man in show business." I know that the Buddman favors Live at the Apollo, JB's first live album from 1963. But I put my money on this 1968 two-record set. When I was living at Water's Edge apartments during my senior year in college, we'd play Side 2 at Saturday night parties, get up to dance, and not sit down until it came to an end--19 minutes and 37 seconds later. The live versions of "Let Yourself Go," "There Was a Time," "I Feel All Right," and "Cold Sweat," are amazing. The set also includes renditions of such pre-funk Brown ballads as "Prisoner of Love," "Try Me" and "Please, Please, Please." The 2001 Deluxe CD Edition includes a tantalizing 23-second "My Girl" musical interlude. All I can say is "...good gawd...uhh...ooh ahh...hah..." 3) Hot Buttered Soul (Isaac Hayes)--Released during June of 1969, this four-track album put Isaac Hayes on the R&B map for Stax-Volt. When I returned to MSU for my final quarter of school in the fall of '69, Hot Buttered Soul supplanted the Beatles' Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band as my favorite pot-smoking album. It should not, in my estimation, be played in the background or listened to while idly vacuuming the living room rug. The only way to truly appreciate this masterpiece of Memphis soul is to "actively" listen to it--with the volume up, the lights low, in an altered state of mind, on the couch. Let Hayes, with his deep-baritone rap; the Bar-Kays, delivering some twangy, psychedelic guitar riffs; and the plaintive sound of violin strings, which were added to the mix in Detroit (presumably by musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra), take you on a journey that starts low, aims high and hits bone-jarring crescendos on Hayes' interpretations of "Walk on By" and a 19-minute version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Listening to this album can be damn-near orgasmic. 4) Chicago Transit Authority (Chicago)--Although this eponymous album was released in 1969, I did not come to truly appreciate it until a couple years later. (The group, by the way, was sued by the CTA and soon changed its name to Chicago). I practically wore out my copy--or at least Side 1 of this two-album set--at my first apartment as a single guy on Appoline in Dearborn. I love the way these Windy City guys meld jazz, rock. soul and orchestral influences to produce a sound in a category with Tower of Power, as well as Blood, Sweat & Tears. Besides lead guitar, bass and drums, you can hear the "pow" of brass and the serenity of woodwinds on this production, provided by a saxaphone, trumpet, trombone, clarinet and flute. You can also hear an array of percussion instruments such as cowbell, claves, tambourine, etc. I'd kill to have any one of the three distinctive voices possessed by Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera and Terry Kath as they take turns on lead vocals. The six-minute instrumental "Introduction" on Side 1 takes the listener on a journey that climbs hills and descends into valleys. It then transitions into the rock classic "Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?" which, in turn, transitions into "Beginnings," yet another rock classic. The first cut on Side 2 features the underrated "Questions 67 and 68." While on Side 3 you'll find the self-indulgent "Free Form Guitar," which I hate, frankly, because it's "noise music" to my ear. There's also an excellent cover of the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man." Best Chicago album of all time, in my opinion. 5) All Day Music (War)--I was in my first big-boy job at AAA when one day in 1971 I was knocked out by the title song from this album and walked over to Grinnell's music store after work to purchase it. There is no mistaking the unique sound of War as the group fuses elements of low-rider soul, rock, jazz and Latin rhythms. My main man Joe McCracken, some of the pals and I would invariably "tune up" singing "All Day Music" at "the pit," another name for my basement apartment, before heading out to Your Mustache, a raucous music room just two blocks from where I lived. I like all of the tunes on this album and want to give a shout-out to "Slippin' Into Darkness," but I can't lay enough praise on the title cut. It remains one of my all-time favorites, a true "nugget" that I never get tired of listening to. 6) The Best of The Guess Who Volume II (The Guess Who)--I'm not easily sold on groups with three guitars and a set of drums. I generally prefer rockers who add horns or a piano to the mix. It is particularly because of the skillful keyboard-playing ability of Burton Cummings, as well as his distinctive voice, that I love the work of these fellas from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In fact, before I lost my music collection in our fire of 2010, I owned more LPs by The Guess Who (probably 10) than any other group. This compilation was released in 1974. The track listing includes 11 tunes recorded between 1970 and '73, all written or co-written by Cummings, after long-time lead guitarist Randy Bachman left the group to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive, aka B.T.O. I absolutely love eight or nine of the cuts--"Albert Flasher," "Guns, Guns, Guns," "Sour Suite," "Glamour Boy" and more. But for my money this album's piece de resistance is "Runnin' Back to Saskatoon" with its building, straight-ahead momentum. M’boy Burton sings of hanging out in such Canadian prairie towns as Moose Jaw, Moosomin, Red Deer and Medicine Hat. How many times did we slam beers at the Phase 1 in Dearborn with that tune blasting on the juke box? After which we'd cruise back to my house on Rosemont in Detroit and blast it some more on the stereo. If "American Woman" is all you know about The Guess Who, make time to discover this Canadian group's north-of-the-border interpretation of rock 'n' roll. 7) Street Corner Symphony--(The Persuasions)--As I mentioned earlier, we'd tune up on "All Day Music" at my first apartment, but before we headed out the door for the "Mustache," we'd pull out this 1972 a cappella album, fire it up--along with a couple of jays--and sing some of its best tunes: a medley including "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" and "You've Got a Friend"; an upbeat version of the Temptations "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)"; "Temps Jam,” a medley of Temptations classics; a superb rendition of "So Much in Love," originally done by the Tymes; and "People Get Ready," the old Impressions chestnut. Only then would we be truly ready to hit the bar. This album sparked my initial interest in music made with nothing more than the human voice. I eventually purchased four or five Persuasions albums and several by other popular a cappella groups. An aside: One summer during the early '70s there was a lengthy beer distributors strike in Detroit. Luckily, in those days, we could easily cross the Ambassador Bridge or go through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to get to Ontario to purchase Canadian suds. It was a sweltering Sunday afternoon when we picked up a case of LaBatt 50 Ale in Windsor and drove to some outdoor venue to see a concert featuring The Guess Who, the Persuasions and the Sun Ra Arkestra. Talk about an eclectic lineup of artists. To this day I consider that beer to be some of the tastiest I have ever swallowed, and that concert to be one of the best I have ever seen. 8) Crystal Green (Rainbow, featuring Will Boulware)--By the mid-to-late '70s, my musical preferences had started to take a turn. From then through the early 2000s I bought mostly what I call "WDET music," less commercially popular vinyl and CDs that I heard on Detroit's world-class (at the time) public radio station, as well as lots of jazz and fusion. The 1977 release of the rareish LP, Crystal Green (not to be confused with the group's similarly titled album, Over Crystal Green), is unquestionably my all-time-favorite jazz/fusion record. After I first heard the upbeat, six-minute "I Like It" on the radio, I knew I had to have the album for my collection. After I bought it and put it on my turntable at home, the mellow groove of the very first cut, "Hossan," knocked me off my feet. In fact, I love all six cuts on this album. I regret that Rainbow, featuring pianist Will Boulware, is not available on Spotify, my go-to music source these days. 9) Meet Me in Uptown (The Mighty Blue Kings)--I recall driving down Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak on my lunch hour one day in 1996, listening to WDET on my car's radio, when a raucous tune began to play. It immediately hit me. Bam! Right upside the head. I'd never heard anything quite like it before. When the deejay finally identified the hall-party sound from the set he had just played, it turned out to be "Jumpin' at the Green Mill" by the Mighty Blue Kings, a "jump blues" band out of Chicago. The seven-piece group with horns, piano and a stand-up bass features the "ballsy" baritone of Ross Bon. This unpretentiously produced CD was ahead of its time, recorded before Brian Setzer resuscitated swing music in the late '90s. "Jumpin' at the Green Mill" remains my favorite cut. Of the 13 selections on this album, here are the ones I'm partial to: "Loose Lips," "Cadillac Boogie," Big Mamou," "Meet Me in Uptown," "Rag Mop" and "Pink Cadillac." Kudos to WDET for opening my ears to this and other diverse types of music such as bluegrass, ska, world, Cajun, zydeco, Tex-Mex and sophisticated forms of hip-hop. 10) The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon--I'm old enough, and bought records early enough, to be able to say that I purchased three 78 rpm discs in 1956 at the Two By Four Record Shop in Dearborn: "I Want You to Be My Girl" by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers; "Stranded in the Jungle" by the Cadets; and "Priscilla" by Eddie Cooley and the Dimples. But it was the summer of that year when my Auntie Julie surprised a then-nine-year-old "little Lenny" with his first 331/3 rpm "long play" album. This platter on the dark red GEE label sparked my lifelong love affair with doo wop (although I don't recall the music being called that in those days). Young Frankie's 13-year-old soprano had a far sweeter sound than Michael Jackson's shrill voice at the same age. And the Teenagers 17-year-old Sherman Garnes edges out Melvin Franklin of the Temptations as my all-time-favorite bass singer. I almost slipped the 1998 release of Trampoline by the Mavericks, featuring the catchy and energetic "Dance the Night Away," with the soaring tenor of lead singer Raul Malo, into the number 10 slot here. However, I couldn't turn my back on the kid group that is at the foundation of every musical emotion I have ever felt.

The end.

[latestnews2018-blog]

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than 20-Year-Old Ronald Acuña's Majestic Homers

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/there-were-zero-things-better-this-week-than-20-year-old-ronald-acunas-majestic-homers/

There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than 20-Year-Old Ronald Acuña's Majestic Homers

Welcome to Good Stuff, HuffPost’s weekly recommendation series devoted to the least bad things on and off the internet.  

To try to enjoy baseball today is to face a constant barrage of reminders ― from baseball’s brass, from baseball’s press, from baseball fans and people who very much want you to know that they are not baseball fans ― that there is something existentially wrong with America’s pastime. It is boring and dated and not worth watching. But every now and then, someone like Ronald Acuña comes along to remind you that baseball is, in fact, good.

Acuña, a 20-year-old Atlanta Braves rookie, has been one of the most exciting young players in baseball this year. But his true breakthrough came only this week, when Acuña opened each of Atlanta’s first three games against the Miami Marlins with home runs. Two of them came Monday, when Acuña opened both games of a doubleheader with home runs. Then he woke up Tuesday and decided to do it again.

They were majestic shots, all of them, each leaving the yard faster, higher and harder than the one before it, and it was a record-breaking streak: The Venezuelan is the youngest player to hit leadoff bombs in three straight games, the youngest to hit homers in five straight games since 1908, the youngest this and the youngest that in all sorts of categories now. Tuesday night, he added another one, a three-run shot that sealed another Braves win.

He’s the new face of the franchise in Atlanta, but, along with players like Washington’s Juan Soto, he’s also one of the new, fresh faces of baseball as a whole. And he plays the game with the sort of electric exuberance sports should elicit from all of us, even if we aren’t all blessed with the talent that allows us to express that joy through towering home runs, diving catches and stolen bases.

Baseball being baseball, that meant someone was going to take exception to his skill or his sheer funness or something. On Wednesday night, Marlins pitcher José Ureña decided there was no longer any point in trying to get Acuña out (a feat the Marlins had mostly failed to accomplish all week) and instead launched a 97 mile-per-hour fastball at the kid’s elbow. It was a cowardly play that drove Acuña from the game and could have ended his (and Atlanta’s) season, and Ureña was roundly criticized for the pitch. Still, his decision was also baseball’s most easily fixable problem illustrated. This game has, for whatever reason, a deep-rooted tendency for someone in or adjacent to it ― a pitcher, a columnist, even the commissioner ― to spend their time trying to convince everyone that the thing they like is actually bad.

Acuña, at least, won’t stand for it. On Thursday, he texted Atlanta’s manager to say he was ready to play, because even when baseball tries its hardest to be bad, people like Ronald Acuña are here to remind us that it’s not. ― Travis Waldron

“On the Road… In Trump Country”

Why are Americans so polarized? What really happened in the 2016 election? I’m leaving my liberal bubble to get some answers. pic.twitter.com/OClhEqRseC

— Jesse Brenneman (@Jesse_Brenneman) August 8, 2018

There was nothing better than radio producer Jesse Brenneman — formerly of WNYC — tweeting a video series about reaching across political and socioeconomic lines, “On the Road… In Trump Country.”

It’s a hilarious series of tweets in which Brenneman pokes fun at all the reporters who parachuted into “Trump Country” after the president was elected. There are a lot of garbage news reports that treat any locale outside of a metropolitan city as a peculiarity to be investigated for a few days and then left behind. Brenneman does exactly that, mostly without leaving his car, and the results are amazing. Read the entire thread. ― Andy Campbell

The First Movie In 25 Years To Feature An All-Asian Cast

This one may be obvious, but it has to be said: “Crazy Rich Asians” is a goddamn delight. This movie has it all: Really hot people! Stunning locales! Delicious-looking food porn! Red-carpet-worthy costumes! Extravagance that would be nauseating in real life but is super fun on screen! A biting joke about JFK airport! Awkwafina!

Also, it’s the first movie in 25 years (since “The Joy Luck Club”) that features an all-Asian cast and puts an Asian-American story at its center. So, seriously, go fill those theaters. ― Emma Gray

“Drowning” by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Orchestral Version

🔥🔥🔥🔥 RT @soscrub_: A Boogie performing Drowning w/ a live orchestra 😳 pic.twitter.com/mxD17oAK3l

— Rory (@thisisrory) August 15, 2018

Bruh, this is majestic as fuck. The original song — “Drowning” by A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie — is amazing in its own right, but hearing it slowed down, without the Auto-Tune, without Kodak Black and with an accompanying orchestra??? Biiiiiiiitch. I wanna shout. I wanna nod my head. I wanna crump. I wanna get active.

There’s something cathartic about hearing a trap beat glide over the graceful medley of cellos, pianos and violins. The song feels fleshed out, as if the more classical instruments have lifted it to be all it can be, all it was meant to be.

And to hear A Boogie rap “Bust down, bust down, bust down, bust down, bust down, bitch I’m drownin’” while that violin whines in the back??? This rendition of the song deserves a Grammy, OK? ― Julia Craven

A Bubble Man

I love New York so much. pic.twitter.com/Qb4TSnknpR

— Alexander Kaufman (@AlexCKaufman) August 15, 2018

Union Square is an egalitarian island in a sea of opulence, corporate chains and pied-à-terres owned by ultrarich foreigners and trust-fund schmucks who think Brooklyn is “too far.” The 6��-acre park, plaza and subway hub of Lower Manhattan serves as the venue for an affordable farmers market four days a week. On the other days, it’s a draw for street performers. Which brings me to the Bubble Man.

I don’t know the Bubble Man’s name, but he’s been a fixture in Union Square for over a decade. He shows up, usually on the west side of the park, with buckets of soapy water and a wand made of two broom-length sticks. Then he just produces bubbles endlessly while kids squeal and chase after them, trying to pop the shimmering little orbs before they float down and burst on the concrete.

When I left work Tuesday, I was exhausted. For some unclear reason, I woke up with my insecurities and feelings of inadequacy on full blast. To boot, my checking account suffered a stinging blow that morning when a handful of different travel and life expenses unexpectedly hit all at once. All I wanted was to go home to my apartment in Queens and curl up until I mustered the appetite to eat leftovers.

As I walked through the park to catch the N train home, the glint of bubbles caught my eye. I noticed a crowd gathered, so I walked over before descending into the subway. The kids were ecstatic, exhaling a chorus of “whoas,” “wows,” and “awesomes” as they scurried around in pursuit of bubbles. Parents and onlookers from all different backgrounds watched, phones out, capturing videos and photos. It was such a raw, uplifting moment, and a wonderful reminder that this city’s real wealth is in its public spaces.  ― Alexander Kaufman

The Great Mayonnaise Debate

Last weekend, Sandy Hingston published a piece in Philadelphia magazine titled “How Millennials Killed Mayonnaise,” a 2,300-word diatribe apparently inspired by a few people not eating her potato salad at Fourth of July barbecues anymore.

The slightly tongue-in-cheek piece offered no real evidence that millennials had actually killed America’s most popular condiment (at least as of 2014), save for her wicked young daughter, a women’s and gender studies major who “naturally” “loathes mayonnaise” (by comparison, Jake, the “practical” and “good son,” loves Sandy’s macaroni salad, thank you very much).

And so it was that Hingston set off a predictably fierce and inarguably trivial internet debate about (A) if mayonnaise is good and (B) whether millennials killed it. The entire situation was wholly idiotic. It lasted way too long, and I loved every second of it. The episode reminded me of a simpler time on the internet, when my days and nights weren’t filled with thoughts of Nazis, incels, Russian bots and Roger Stone. And so I say: Bring back the asinine internet debates of yesteryear! I’ll watch people debate literally anything dumb. Ketchup? Sure. Avocados? Fine, whatever. You want to debate laundry detergent. I’ll debate laundry detergent. Please, I need this. I need this so bad. Help me. Please. And for the record, mayonnaise is bad. ― Maxwell Strachan

Pop’s New Pansexual Anthem

British-Japanese pop princess Rina Sawayama released her new single, “Cherry,” this week, a bubbly pop bop in which she gushes over a new crush who is… dun dun dun… a girl!

“Down the subway, you looked my way / With your girl gaze, with your girl gaze / That was the day everything changed / Now it’s something else.”

Sawayama, who identifies as pansexual, explores the electric experience of desiring a woman and letting the feeling fully flood the body ― even though she’s dating a dude. The song uproots the “girl meets boy” pop music standard, navigating Sawayama’s unfixed sexual preferences with nuance and playful levity. In “Cherry,” Sawayama confronts the contradictions that accompany fluid sexuality: can she authentically identify as queer while being in a heterosexual relationship? (Yes.) The question probes far deeper than Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.”

Like the 2017 album “RINA,” “Cherry” invokes sounds popularized in the late ’90s and early 2000s pop by femme-forward artists like Willa Ford and Danity Kane. Sawayama, however, sharpens their sugary recipes by granting the genre a gravitas long denied to it. As a result, her jams feel both nostalgic and cutting edge, combining the sweetness of Mandy Moore’s “Candy” with the visionary mastery of Janelle Monae.

Along with possessing me to dance with a force best described as supernatural, Sawayama’s music illuminates potential for a future in which mainstream music can encapsulate experiences as niche and complex as any other “highbrow” art form. As Sawayama told Broadly: “I think it’s possible to queer the world with pop music.” ― Priscilla Frank

This Book Has Everything: Spore-Infected Zombies, A Mediocre Photo Blog, Critique Of Capitalism

Amazon

Spore-infected zombies, a mediocre New York photography blog, critiques of capitalism, a residential shopping mall and a spot of doomed romance: Ling Ma’s debut novel, Severance, has everything I want in a work of fiction.

Severance follows Candace Chen, an aimless twentysomething who has an uninspiring office job in New York, overseeing the production of Bibles. She has vague artistic aspirations and a dreamy writer boyfriend of five years. As the book begins, her boyfriend decides to leave New York for the cheaper and more artistically inspiring pastures of, well, anywhere else. Meanwhile, a fungal infection has erupted in China, and it soon spreads throughout the world. There’s no treatment; the infection kills those it affects, but often after a long spell of zombie-like existence.

Candace, left behind by her boyfriend and alone in the world (her parents, who immigrated from China when she was a young girl, are dead), stays in New York City as it empties of living residents, documenting its decay on her blog. Finally, she flees the city with a small band of survivors who make their way to a shelter owned by the group’s de facto leader.

Interwoven are flashbacks exploring Candace’s childhood, her immigrant experience, her family and her early years in New York, piecing together a novel that’s zombie apocalypse meets immigrant narrative meets office satire.

This book is hauntingly beautiful, it’s thrillingly plotted and it offered me a bit of escapism, the comforting thought that American civilization could be brought to an end by something I’ve completely forgotten to worry about since November 2016: a massive pandemic. ― Claire Fallon

‘Spotlight,’ Which Deserves A Spot In The Pantheon Of Classic Journalism Movies

This week’s shocking grand jury report detailing sexual abuse by hundreds of Catholic priests in Pennsylvania credited the Boston Globe Spotlight team’s 2002 investigation, which first exposed the institutional cover-up of serial sexual abuse involving Boston priests. The reporters’ work was later dramatized in the brilliant movie “Spotlight” — which, luckily, is available on Netflix. Nearly three years after its release, I can confidently say that it’s just as good as (and maybe even better than) “All the President’s Men,” and it deserves a spot in the pantheon of classic journalism movies.

While it miraculously won the Oscar for best picture in 2015, it also should have won awards for its meticulous craft, from its seamless editing to subtle camera work. The technical elements in understated movies rarely get the recognition that they deserve, precisely because they are so understated (i.e. no explosions and car chases). Journalism is not an inherently cinematic profession: It’s mostly people staring at computers, talking on the phone, reading through documents, etc. But “Spotlight” manages to make these mundane, procedural tasks look riveting. Case in point: One of its most suspenseful scenes involves an Excel spreadsheet. An Excel spreadsheet! ― Marina Fang

Aretha, Remembered

As we remember the one and only Aretha Franklin, so many iconic performances come to mind. “Divas Live.” Obama’s inauguration. That Carole King tribute at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. But one TV appearance of hers needs to be watched again and again, if only to stare at Cissy Houston providing backup vocals in the background.

That’s right: In 2014, Aretha sang a cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” blended with a rendition of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” and Cissy, an accomplished performer herself, appeared to forget all the words as one of the backup singers. It’s so entertaining and funny, and it will bring you some joy as we face the sad loss of the Queen of Soul. ― Leigh Blickley

Glenn Close In “The Wife”

Graeme Hunter Pictures, Sunnybank Cottages

If you want to see an actor at work — really at work — look for the moments without any dialogue. For the most gifted performers, that’s when the magic happens. Nicole Kidman at the opera house in “Birth.” Jodie Foster darting through Buffalo Bill’s house in “The Silence of the Lambs.” And, now, Glenn Close standing idly by her husband (Jonathan Pryce) as fans extol his fraudulent career in “The Wife,” a Meg Wolitzer adaptation opening this weekend.

In one of the best performances of her career, Close plays the spouse of a novelist who’s just been feted with the Nobel Prize — for the books she ghostwrote. Over the course of 100 minutes, she finds it increasingly tough to quiet the resentment that’s finally bubbling up inside of her. The movie springs to life not in the couple’s verbal tiffs but in the subtle character work Close does when the camera is stationed on her face, telegraphing the conflict she’s long masked. It’s an actress at her finest. ― Matthew Jacobs

A Nice Memory

Read last week’s Good Stuff.

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’); // Edition specific fbq(‘init’, ‘1043018625788392’); // Partner Studio fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’, “content_name”:”There Were Zero Things Better This Week Than 20-Year-Old Ronald Acuña’s Majestic Homers”,”content_category”:”us.hpmgarts” ); fbq(‘trackCustom’, ‘EntryPage’, “section_name”:”Culture & Arts”,”tags”:[“@health_gad”,”@health_pain”,”@health_depression”,”@health_adhd”,”@health_models”,”@health_hiv”,”@health_erectile”,”@health_ibs”,”crazy-rich-asians-film”,”glenn-close”,”ronald-acuc3b1a”,”rina-sawayama”],”team”:”us_enterprise_culture”,”ncid”:null,”environment”:”desktop”,”render_type”:”web” ); waitForGlobal(function() return HP.modules.Tracky; , function() /* TODO do we still want this? $(‘body’).on(‘click’, function(event) HP.modules.Tracky.reportClick(event, function(data) fbq(‘trackCustom’, “Click”, data); ); ); */ );