Kitchen Confidential

Here’s a great show I watched recently (all 13 half hour episodes). Great cast, witty dialogue, and not much else to it. See it if you like.

episode 1

Ave Maria

(pictured: Olivia Hussey as Mary in Jesus of Nazareth)

This, the most famous of Marian Catholic prayers, comes from the passage in the first chapter of the gospel of Luke where the angel Gabriel is sent to tell the virgin Mary that she is blessed among women and will bear a son named Jesus. Countless musical adaptations have been written, but we are most familiar with those written by Schubert, Bach and Gounod, Caccini (well, not really…read on to find out about a musical hoax), and Mascagni.

In this post will be Youtube videos of my favorite rendition of each of the above version of Ave Maria.

Her Morning Elegance

cute music video with cool artistic concepts

Once (2006)

5 Stars

What amazed me about this movie is that it was filmed on a tiny budget in 17 days on handheld camcorders. The unnamed main characters, the Girl and the Guy, are played by inexperienced actors in their debut movie. Surprisingly, their chemistry on-screen is believable and their acting is natural.  The movie’s theme song won the 2007 Academy Award for best original song.