William Shatner, Has Been - In his latest spoken-word album, William Shatner boldly surpasses all expectations for both the spoken-word genre and his musical career.
Throw away the ideas of Shatner battling an unrealistic 6-foot lizard, or of spoken word being a domain solely for beatnik boys with bongos and pretense. The album is produced, largely arranged and co-written by Ben Folds.
It turns out that William Shatner has led a life rife with the full range of human emotion - pulling through pain comparable to the anguish you probably felt after watching his Priceline commercials. With precise timing backed up by Folds' blissful pop sensibility, Shatner has turned out a tale worth telling, and certainly worth listening to.
"Love Me If You Dare" ("Jeux D'Enfants") - True romance in American film is hard to come by. It is almost always watered down by the addition of a zany friend or terminally ill mother - unnecessary and overused elements.
The French, on the other hand, seem to get it right more frequently. In "Love Me If You Dare," director Yann Samuell appeals to the heart of romantic sensibility in his tale of Sophie and Julien and a game of dares begun as children.
As the two get older and more susceptible to the mundane, the game and the fairy tale become madder, and their acts become increasingly dangerous and enthralling. The two embark on a roller coaster of love straight to hell, and it's beautiful.
"A Walk in the Woods," Bill Bryson - This is the story of an overweight and overly cynical travel writer who decides to hike the 2160-mile Appalachian Trail. An even more overweight recovering alcoholic serves as his travel companion.
Throw in a rampant fear of hypothermia and bears parched from want of the blood of tubby bearded men, and you get the wit Bryson brings effortlessly into all his travel writing.
His comedic spark is well balanced with an honest admiration for the beauty of the trail and admonishment for the death of the American wilderness.
