Stones. Scorsese. "Shine a Light." Smash!

Too old to rock & roll? Not the Rolling Stones, as they prove in Martin Scorsese's killer concert documentary Shine a Light, which opens today.

The subject of age seems to be on most other critics' minds, but I honestly wasn't struck by the Stones' advanced years until "As Tears Go By" — six songs in — when Mick Jagger's face strains to hit certain notes. His voice, meanwhile, hits nearly all of them.

Indeed, Jagger is in amazingly fine vocal form throughout the film, which was shot at New York City's Beacon Theatre on October 29 and November 1, 2006. And it's his voice, and of course the band, that will keep you thinking young, too — if not forever, at least for the 2 hours of Shine a Light.

But first, a little comedy . . .

SXSW Keynote: Reed on Sound

"I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

That, of course, is the line extracted for today’s front page of The Austin Chronicle, reporting on yesterday’s SXSW keynote interview of Lou Reed, conducted by producer and friend Hal Willner.

And sure, it’s a great quote, but it’s even better when you get the full context that preceded it, which the Chronicle never gives:

After reciting lyrics from "Rock Minuet," Reed said the following: "People say, 'Is this stuff real?' Dance to a rock minuet — when you dance hard, slow-dancing, repetitive, when you dance to a rock minuet. People say, 'How would you know that? You’re joking, right? You're supposed to give qualifications for lyrics. You gotta be joking.' "

And then came the answer: "I have a B.A. in dope, but a Ph.D. in soul."

Reed is indeed a man of many things. He and Willner were ostensibly at the Austin Convention Center yesterday morning to promote Julian Schnabel’s film of Lou Reed’s Berlin. But the musician aired out many of his passions in his talk with Willner. Most intriguing for readers of Sound & Vision, he spent more time discussing sound quality than anything else.

"300" Conquers High-Def Awards

So says the headline of a press release we received about the first annual High-Def Disc Awards, presented primarily by the weekly B2B trade publication Home Media Magazine.

Specifically, 300 won two different awards for its two different high-def formats: The Blu-ray edition grabbed High-Def Title of the Year, while the HD DVD edition nabbed the Best Bonus Feature nod for its blue-screen PIP.

What did we think of the 300 high-def discs? To find out, click here. (For our review of the standard DVD edition, click here.)

And will the film be our fave Blu-ray or HD DVD of the year — or at least, one of our Top 10 plain-vanilla DVDs? Stay tuned for the February/March double issue of Sound & Vision — which just happens to be our 50th Anniversary Issue!

In the meantime, see below for the full HMM press release.
—Ken Richardson

Weekend Update: Fagen, Gilmour, Zep, Radiohead

Can't find some prominent music releases on MVI, Blu-ray, HD DVD, and CD that we previewed recently? The dates, they keep a-changin':

Apple Announcement #1: The Beatles!

No, not that Apple. And no, not that technological species of Beatles.

In a week when it was rumored that Apple Inc. would herald the long-awaited availability of the Beatles on iTunes, Apple Corps Ltd. instead divulged that the band's second film, Help!, will be reissued on DVD, in a two-disc set.

This is great news for Beatlemaniacs, considering that the 1965 movie has been unavailable on DVD since its 2000 reissue. (It first appeared on the format in 1997.)

This is also great news for us multichannel-music-maniacs, as the DVD will include "a newly created 5.1 soundtrack." Little by little, we're getting the entire Beatles catalog in surround! (Now, please, Apple Corps: Let's have every album on CD+DVD-Audio.)

Apple's full press release appears below. —Ken Richardson

Happy "25th Birthday," Phoebe! Now, Come Back!

As I write this, we're in shipping-madness mode here at the S&V offices, trying to get the October print edition out the door — and having just proofed Feedback, Sound & Visionary, an Installation feature, three Test Reports (Rob Sabin just brought me another one!), and the first installment of The Web Zone, I need a break. Just a 5-minute break, dear friendly Editor-In-Chief Mike Mettler, if you're monitoring . . .

And so, having posted the item immediately below on the 25th anniversary of the CD, I just found out that this week — Monday, to be exact — also marked the 25th anniversary of the release of that cinematic epic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. (Yes, someone has given the movie a Web site!) And in honor of that occasion, I present this delightful still of star Phoebe Cates — as, you know, a public service.

By the way, Fast Times is available on HD DVD. Let's get wet!
—Ken Richardson

Swingin' at the Vineyard with Pete Farrelly

Of all the directors I’ve ever talked to, no two have ever taken the same approach to watching movies at home — which isn’t too surprising, since each has had an extremely idiosyncratic approach to making movies.

 
Pete, with his son Bob exiting on a tire
swing, frame right. (Photo: Nora Gaughn)

For instance, Get Shorty and Men in Black helmer Barry Sonnenfeld (who does a bang-up job in the September issue of Sound & Vision writing about his experiences upgrading the system in his Telluride home) likes to research every piece of gear that goes into his setup and wants to know all the details about why his system works the way it does. Meanwhile, Pete Farrelly — who, along with brother Bobby, has made a string of hit comedies that includes Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary — admits to being a technophobe, and just wants to know where the On button is.

That doesn’t mean Pete would settle for a lesser quality system than Barry’s — the screening room in his Santa Barbara home, for instance, features Meridian digital speakers and a Faroudja projector. It just means he relies more on his installer to be able to interpret his tastes and then recommend the right gear to satisfy them.

Harry and the Potters

The countdown is truly winding down now — less than 4 hours to go (Eastern time) until the midnight premiere of Film No. 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And less than 2 hours to go until my wife and son get in line! (Not me, alas. If I go, I'll never be able to wake up and be fresh for things like . . . writing blogs!)

The film's Original Motion-Picture Soundtrack already appeared in stores this morning. Gotta love these track titles: "Dementors in the Underpass," "The Hall of Prophecies," "The Room of Requirements," "The Sacking of Trelawney." Sounds like a Genesis album between Trespass and Nursery Cryme.

Of course, after tomorrow, another countdown continues . . .