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Icon movie review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

If you are looking for something out of the norm, this beautiful meditation on love and memory will satisfy
Posted by Fred Steiner on Thursday, August 13, 2020

Reviewed by Wilson
Oscar-winning oddball screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is set to debut his newest film I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS on Netflix in September, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to revisit what I believe is his best work: ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (also streaming on Netflix).

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Icon book reviews: Arctic Rising, and Hurricane Fever

Local author author speculates dire nightmares
Posted by Fred Steiner on Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Reviewed by Robert McCool
It's Monday in a sunny August blur where the world is in full bloom, the weather fine. During the past two days, and in addition to my regular weekend chores, I managed to read two speculative fiction novels where the weather is most definitively not fine.

Those books, Arctic Rising (Tor, ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0), and Hurricane Fever (Tor, ISBN 978-0-7653-1922-7) by Tobias S. Buckell – an author who lives in Bluffton – take place in a space where global warming is transforming our world with an undesirable outcome.

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Icon music review: Taylor Swift's Folklore

While unlikely to go down as the artist’s best album, there is more than enough creativity, artistry, and variety to keep the Swifties happy
Posted by Fred Steiner on Friday, August 7, 2020

Folklore-Taylor Swift
Reviewed by Craig Hoffman
Country and pop-crossover megastar Taylor Swift dropped Folklore her eighth studio album in July. The indie-folk style record was written and recorded by Swift while in quarantine. The artist did her best to stay productive in 2020 despite chaos in the world.

“Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen…” Swift wrote. “And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore [sic]. Surprise.”  

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Icon book review: The Hollows

Journey back to 1926 Ohio, Bronwyn County, and solve a questionable death
Posted by Fred Steiner on Friday, July 31, 2020

Review by Robert McCool
Journey back to 1926 Ohio, Bronwyn County, and solve a questionable death.

Ah, summer. The visceral sun, the weight of humidity. Why not cozy up and chill out in 1926 in the rural Bronwyn County and the Appalachian time of coal country?

In her second book based  in this location, Jess Montgomery(The Widows) blesses us with a gem of a story in “The Hollows” (Minotaur Books, ISBN 978-1-250-18454-2).

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Icon music review: There’s a lot here to like if not completely love

The Chicks' “Gaslighter” is a powerful anthem full of hope and strong vocals
Posted by Fred Steiner on Thursday, July 30, 2020

Gaslighter-The Chicks
Reviewed by Craig Hoffman

Gaslighter is the eighth studio album by American country music group The Chicks. It was released on July 17, 2020, by Columbia Records. It is the first work issued by the group since their name change from the Dixie Chicks.

The band changed their name to The Chicks after the group received criticism for being tacitly connected to American slavery.  “We were literally teenagers when we picked that stupid name,” said founding group member Martie Maguire, talking about when the Dixie Chicks name was selected back in 1989.

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Icon movie review: Palm Springs enters like a breath of fresh air

Clocking at 90 minutes, it is a fun romp that might make you think a little. If nothing else, it’s possibly the best direct-to-video movie we could have hoped for in quarantine
Posted by Fred Steiner on Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Around the world, people have been practicing varying levels of social distancing since March. Movie theaters closed in mid-March and in some cases have reopened slowly, but with a dearth of new films to offer customers. Major studio releases, particularly TENET, have been pushed back, or in limited cases movies like TROLLS: WORLD TOUR were released directly to Video-on-Demand (VOD).

The summer movie season has seen a drought of good new movies.

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