Beautiful x 3

I recently (though none but the latter are really that recent in release) experienced three amazing pieces of work that I most humbly and most highly recommend. They are three gems that may well be missed, but most shamefully so. My special thanks go out to Mary Jacobs Library for carrying a multitude of foreign films including the first selection, some list creator on amazon.com for recommending the second selection, and Jimmy LaValle for sharing his beautiful craftsmanship on the third selection.

My first selection is a film available on DVD called “Turtles Can Fly” written and directed by Bahman Ghobadi, originally released in 2004. The film takes place at the dawn of the outbreak of war in Iraq, and is the story of a community of children in a Kurdish refugee camp near the border between Iraq and Turkey. A scrappy thirteen-year-old boy, known as “Satellite” for his installation of the large dishes in local villages, is the leader of the children of the camp, helping them find work disarming land mines to sell to local arms-dealers in order to earn money. While Ghobadi reveals the tragic reality of these innocent children, many of whom are missing arms and legs as casualties of their occupation, he does so with a humor and charm that lifts it beyond a Save The Children commercial.


The actors in this film, all of whom were actual refugees, are incredible. Shirkooh, a loyal follower of Satellite, is my personal favorite. After returning from a mission to reclaim Satellite’s bike, which a local village leader has taken to ensure Satellite’s return to translate the news for his town, Shirkooh reports the occurrences in his high-speed, top-of-his-lungs fashion, slapping himself in the face to reenact the leader’s actions, which have shocked him to tears.

Beautiful movie. Watch it.



Second pick is the novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor, published in 2003 by Houghton Mifflin. Beautiful, lyrical, poetic, touching, heart-wrenching. The story of all the inhabitants of a street of flats in England on one tragic day when an accident will establish a moment that will forever be imprinted in all of their minds. McGregor writes with incredible rhythm and flow. Is it the British that makes it all so lovely? Possibly. My praise for this book will not do it justice. But of all the books I’m getting through courtesy of my 3+ hours of daily commuting, this one was the most pleasant surprise. I almost missed my stop one day trying to get to the end.

Outstanding book. Read it.

Third recommendation is the new album by The Album Leaf, Into the Blue Again, which I was lucky enough to find a promo copy of this summer at Princeton Record Exchange, but is out and about for everyone’s enjoyment as of September 12th.

This record is not a drastic transformation from previous releases from The Album Leaf, but it’s delightful. If you’ve been partial to his earlier stuff, you’ll be a fan. If you’ve never heard the stuff, talk to me, perhaps we can arrange something.

I find this record to be very uplifting and, to use the word yet again, beautiful. The songs on this record, mostly instrumental, are the ones that come on your iPod when you’re on shuffle mode and make you snap out of your outer space delirium to check out exactly what song and what record are playing. Like I did recently when the song “Wishful Thinking” came on and I was busy staring out a smudged NJTransit train window through the rain at growing puddles. I was suddenly awakened and immediately needed to know what heavenly tunes were flowing through my noggin. And it was good.

Lovely, lovely music. Absorb it.


Now...go in peace.