Disc Reviews

Loosely based on Melissa de la Cruz’s book, Witches of East End was renewed for a second season in July 2014, opening with over 1 million viewers scrambling to the TV set to see what would happen now that the portal of Asgard was opened and Joanna was struggling to overcome Argentium poisoning. Featuring Julia Ormond as the matriarch Joanna Beauchamp, she is parked in the middle of lofty tales of the supernatural ,which are commonplace to this unusual family. If you’ve been following the trials and tribulations of the Beauchamp brood, you already know these aren’t the wart-nosed witches of your childhood storybooks. When you watch this, understand you are not watching for superiorly crafted writing; it is fluff, pure and simple – a soap opera with supernaturally gifted women and men. It features  modern-day witches who’ve lived multiple lives that always cross, of course just happen to be sexy as h*ll AND have very cool names based on Norse mythology.  An example of this is Freya, played by actress Jenna Dewan Tatum (yes, married to Channing “XXL”), who even pregnant while filming looked like Photoshopped perfection in this production. Much like what Vampire Diaries was for vampires, we now have the ideal setup for a WB Lifetime program - a supernatural show about lots of picture-perfect beautiful people doing magic.

Episode one “A Moveable Beast” bursts open with Freya’s long lost twin brother arriving in the nick of time to save his mother, Joanna. Poor Dash is still fretting over his brother. When he used magic against his brother over Killian’s love for his fiancée ex-fiancée, Freya, sent him soaring skyward, crash landing in a boat and adrift in the sea – did he kill him, or didn’t he? Apparently not, as Killian is shacked up with a brand-spanking-new bewitchingly lovely wife, Ava. No, of course, she’s not dosing him with mind-control drugs to make him forget his soulmate and one true love, Freya, hoping to get him to knock her up so she can get what’s coming to her per her agreement with a warlock many decades before.

The DVD release of In The Dream Machine makes a number of promises. It promises to show rare footage of William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Leonardo DiCaprio. It does, but only in the broadest interpretation of that concept. It has a blurb from famed avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger which says, “More interesting than most documentaries in that it is presented in the way Burroughs writes”. I flat out disagree with that. It does show Burroughs extensively, but mostly in incoherent or unflattering segments. The film is incompetently edited and put together with a slapdash of offbeat and unintelligible segments. This sort of thing was fairly common back in the hazy, lazy days of the 1960's, but this has been compiled from 1996 through 2014.

Woodard makes numerous appearances in the DVD by himself and with Burroughs. At one point he makes a brief attempt to show how to make the dream machine. If you want to know how to build the dream machine, I suggest googling how to build a dream machine, and you should find detailed instructions under ultraculture.org. You'll need a 32” x 32” piece of aluminum or heavy cardboard. You cut out the prescribed patterns with an X-acto knife. You will need to glue it together so it will fit over a 78 RPM turntable with a light bulb suspended inside. Turn it on, close your eyes, and dream away. It is supposed to induce a hypnagogic (altered state of consciousness) state. There is an interminable DVD extra at the Freud Museum of Dreams in Saint Petersburg, Russia with Dr. David Woodard.

It's almost upon us. After many long years and two less-than-stellar films, the original X-Files is returning to its rightful place on television. In the years since it left the airwaves, there have been many attempts to recreate its style and place in the hearts of fans. Helix was an attempt to take something that would have been a great X-Files episodes and turn it into a complete series franchise of its own. You remember the scenario. Mulder and Scully would be locked in the arctic where an ancient disease or worm would contaminate the people there. It would be up to these guys to solve the mystery and rescue what was left of the base scientists. Helix played out that very arc in its first season. Of course, there was much more than a disease or organism going on, and the first season turned out to be a rather interesting, if not great, watch. By the time it was over, they had thrown in a highly complicated story involving immortals and a company made up of them who want to control the world. Throw in some zombie-like contaminates, and you had 13 hours of somewhat entertaining television.

It came time for season 2, and the powers that be decided they might not have time to play out whatever other elements they had prepared for the show's ultimate run. They were absolutely correct, of course. But it didn't help the cause that someone decided to throw every idea they might have had for the show into one convoluted mess of a 13-hour season. If it had not yet been slated for cancellation, it deserved it by the time these episodes had run their course.

Joan Rivers left behind an enormous legacy after leaving us in September of 2014. Known for her sharp wit and celebrity stings, the comedienne proved she was a force to be reckoned with. Most known for her television vehicle Fashion Police (started in 2002 and still running), she has had a major influence in the world of comedy, and her death really shook that world. Perhaps my favorite project she has worked on was the brilliantly-titled In Bed With Joan. While televised, it was also released as a podcast. The show featured a half-hour, no-holds-barred talk with a comedian selected by Joan, which takes place in her bed. She was indeed a brilliant woman, and I hope to see more brilliant women follow in her footsteps.

With that said, this box set is an interesting look into her early career. Yet another brilliant title That Show (which is always followed by “starring Joan Rivers”) demonstrates that her wit and sense of humor are rather timeless. The general format of the show is as follows: Joan performs 3-5 minutes of stand-up comedy (more often than not consisting of crowd work), then invites two guests to sit down and discuss a particular theme: an expert and a celebrity. The expert is chosen based on that week’s theme, and, from what I understand, the celebrity is just who is available that night. For example, an episode about married couples fighting showcases Dr. Geo Bach (who wrote the book on fighting in marriage) and James Earl Jones, who give their own perspectives on the issue. The show’s runtime is approximately 30 minutes long.

Amazing Space is a three-disc set (Blu-Ray, DVD and CD) that is essentially an ambient experience. There is actually a lot that I can say about the presentation, but it is not complicated on its surface. The cover picture shows a young woman in a silhouette sitting in a lotus position. That speaks volumes as well (as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words). The movie takes us on a musical journey from Earth to the farthest reaches of space and back again. The music can best be described as New Age and meditative. Again that is very important to the purpose of this presentation. The composer of the music, Kristin Hoffman, has a commentary extra which discusses chakras and meditation and the power of music. Maybe some of you don't know what chakras are, but it is very important to a large part of the world population, most predominantly Buddhists and Hindus. The idea of the powers of meditation have been embraced by many various religious and pseudo-religious groups, and it is widely practiced for the benefits to health and well being. The makers of the movie also have a stated intention of promoting the elimination of unnecessary light pollution. Light pollution is the wasteful use of energy to flood the night sky with excessive light, preventing easy access to enjoying the natural light of the heavens.

The cinematography is wonderful, and the experience is meant to be restful, calming and renewing. It is not meant to be a narrative or informational experience. It fits into the wider movement of the New Age. I'm sure everyone is aware of the phrase “New Age”, but it is a vague term that has been co-opted by a wide range of groups. It has been explored in the West for a few hundred years and became extremely popular in the 1970's. Yoga is a big part of the New Age movement. It suggests a spiritual connection to the Earth and the cosmos. It is not possible to do any kind of in-depth analysis of how this all relates and intertwines, but it might be important to any potential viewers of this disc.