You Know I'm No Good

This morning I took a group of students in my free elective Film and the Moving Image module to the National Media Museum in Bradford. I had never been to the museum before but I knew it had a long-standing reputation as a photography museum and the site of one of Britain's IMAX theatres. As it turns out it was indeed a great way to spend a Saturday away from the regular Scarborough routine.

The IMAX film I chose for us to watch is a new one called Deep Sea 3D. It has remarkable underwater cinematography, a full-blown Hollywood score by Danny Elfman, as well as narration by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. As anyone who has ever experienced a 3D show at an IMAX will tell you, being there is beyond words.

The 13th Bradford Film Festival started yesterday and this was the main reasons why I planned this museum visit for today. I must admit that I had hoped for things to be better organised with the festival and that I would be able to select from a rich programme of screenings and events. As things turned out I had to settle for a new Romanian film called A Roof Overhead, which has an intriguing story of two depressed women who are released early from a psychiatric hospital due to financial difficulties at the institution. It sounds like a comedy and that's exactly what it is, especially when the two end up on in the remote Danube delta living in an ancestral home without a roof. The film is well-made, the acting is fine and the narrative is handled nicely. However, the end is quite anti-climatic and it leaves you with a feeling that the filmmakers just needed to end the film, perhaps because just like the mental asylum they had run out of money. After all money is a major element of the plot in the whole story.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you're probably thinking: so if he spent all day in Bradford today (a Saturday) whatever happened to this week's podcast. Fear not, I prepared my podcast earlier in the week, so by the time we got back to Scarborough I only had to put on some minor finishing touches to. While this blog entry may appear to be about a field trip for my students and whatnot it's also here to announce the latest edition of Mużika Mod Ieħor.

I had a hankering for something with Maltese lyrics recently, partly because I haven't played too many songs in our native language. Podcast number 58 opens with a song called Inti Ħabib from Mystic Dimensions . This is an unexpected source for a song in Maltese and the style is unlike any other we've heard before where the singing is in Maltese. Mystic Diversions is an Italy-based trio, which you may recall includes Maltese musician Aidan Zammit. I'm pleased to be playing Aidan's music again on my podcast but I'm even happier to hear him sing in Maltese on this Mediterranean escapade.

Maltese musicans who live abroad appear regularly on Mużika Mod Ieħor. They're all over the world and some of them are quite prolific. Andre Camilleri fits this description perfectly and is no stranger to regular listeners of my podcast. His recently renamed band, The Broken Hearts, has just released what I believe is the first Maltese-Austalian CD album for 2007. It's called One Fine Day and from it I've selected to play Cut All the Weed.

X-18 is looking for a drummer. So I figured it's time to play some of his music on my podcast. I should have played something by X-18 ages ago. After all, one of the first four releases from Pinkpube back in August 2005 (when I first started podcasting) was by X-18. From that debut Pinkpube release I bring you Unknown Masterminds Yet to Be Discovered.

Since I'm lamenting acts I should have brought you earlier on in the podcasting series, I'm closing this week's show with a song by The New Harmonics. Inside is an enjoyable song that shows a steady hand in its treatment by Boriz Cezek and company. I'm not sure why I hadn't played anything by The New Harmonics before but at least I can drop it now that I've actually done it.

I really appreciate feedback from my podcast listeners. I especially like to receive recommendations or requests for particular musicians or songs. You can either contact me directly or leave a comment right here on the blog.

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