Every month, Cosmik Debris brings you many CD and record reviews, but the writers manage to find a little time for other pursuits, like reading, going to movies and watching videos. That's where Everything Else In Review comes in.


CONCERT: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
2/2/2000 - Rose Garden, Portland, OR
Reviewed by Tim & Ananda Owen

After a 26 year hiatus Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young pulled out all the stops, thrilling and electrifying a full house at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon. It was the 5th stop of the tour, and according to guitar tech John Gonzales, the best so far, hands down.

To begin, I have to clarify a strong distinction in this lineup: this is not CSN plus Young. The four of them together as CSNY, becomes another entity altogether, particularly obvious in their electric sets. With a pumped up, awe-inspiring full sound of electric lead guitar between Stephen Stills and Neil Young, they've not chosen the path many classic rock artists have on major tours, by adding a large, "sound fill" of keyboardists, percussionists and additional guitar players. On the contrary, they stripped their sound down to the very basics, adding only veteran bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and drummer Jim Keltner. With all six players pushing 60, (Graham celebrated his 58th birthday that night), they were also pushing the musical envelope.

31 songs for 3 1/2 hours of actual music. They started with a long electric set, a 20 minute break, an acoustic set, then right into another electric set. They played mostly timeless classics by CSN, CSNY and Young, as well as several new tunes throughout the night from their latest release, Looking Forward. Hearing the new songs live was a delightful surprise for many, with some sounding much better than the recorded version. Crosby's new "Stand and Be Counted" rocked the house, as well as Stephens new tune, "Seen Enough", which was much better live than on the recording, with the back up vocals punching through. There were many spine tingling four part harmony vocals on the more familiar tunes, as well as hair-raising extended jams on such songs as "Southern Man," "Ohio," "Rocking in The Free World" and "Down By the River."

Most importantly, the energy of the music spoke volumes of its validity today, of what the songs stood for when they were written and last performed by CSNY, as well as the band's new material's consistency with the old. CSNY rocks like no other. Don't miss this tour!


(C) 1999 - Tim & Ananda Owen (Photos by Tim Owen)



VIDEO: Run Lola Run
Directed by Tom Tywker
Starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu
(In German with subtitles)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

This movie probably has the best use of techno music on a soundtrack ever. It's a feisty little drama with comic twinges set in modern Germany. It's not dark or futuristic like The Matrix or other movies that use electronic music, in fact most all the movie has Lola running outside in the near noonday sun.

The plot revolves around our orange-haired heroine, who's trying desperately to save her boyfriend from a gangster's wrath. All she has to do is raise 100,000 marks inside of twenty minutes! But her moped just got stolen, so she has to run everywhere to get it done. That may sound straightforward enough, but the film also has a surreal edge. It makes use of cartoon animation in several spots and the film keeps jumping into the lives of the people she runs by, making for little micro soap operas. Plus Lola gets to re-live those twenty minutes three times before the film's over.

The running scenes are perfect for techno music, keeping you in a constant state of anticipation. But they also work as Lola begs for money from her father and ponders ripping off the bank where he works. Franka Potente who plays Lola also performs a lot on the soundtrack which was done by Director Tywker in addition to John Klimek and Rynhold Heil, best known as the producer of the German language hit 99 Luftballoons back in the 80's.

I can't think of another film quite like it. Whether you are a techno fan or not, Run Lola Run is unique experience that you'll really enjoy. And if you are a techno freak already, the soundtrack album stands on its own merits too.


(C) 1999 - Rusty Pipes



Book: The Delicious Grace Of Moving One's Hand
By Timothy Leary
Thunders's Mouth Press
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

Although it's subtitled "The Collected Sex Writings," the title of this collection of essays, speeches and incidental pieces by Dr. Timothy Leary may be the sexiest thing about the book. The section titled Pornography, for instance, is devoted primarily to First Amendment questions and a discussion of the psychological value of porn, with nary an example to be found. But if that's confounding to those who might hope for something salacious from the fabled High Priest of Ecstasy, well, Tim Leary devoted much of his life to being confounding.

Depending on your perspective, Tim Leary was either a promising young psychologist who ruined himself with drugs, a psychedelic guru who permanently altered the cultural map of Western society, an outlaw drug runner turned FBI stooge or one of the most provocative and original social philosophers of the 20th Century. My personal bias tends toward the latter, and some of the reasons are to be found in the largest and, I think, most important section of the book, The Berkeley Lectures. Over the course of 125 pages, he lays out the blueprint for the Hedonic Philosophy that he would spend the rest of his life refining and communicating. While Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out might be the most famous formulation of that philosophy, the words on their own have been misconstrued in as many ways as six words can be. If you think you know what he meant, The Berkeley Lectures are a good place to start checking your interpretation against his meaning.

The Delicious Grace Of Moving One's Hand isn't Leary's best book. It's not his book at all, in fact, but an editor's assembly of things that made it into his books and things that didn't. It's not a comprehensive overview of his life's work, though it provides some interesting windows into that work. And, again, it's not very sexy, though much of it is about sex. It is, though, a worthwhile addition to the Leary bookshelf (there are over 20 others to add it to) and the publication of The Berkeley Lectures is an argument for calling it an essential addition.


(C) 1999 - Shaun Dale