Sky High

Wilco's rehab record, new stoner classics on DVD, and more picks

May 15, 2007

MUSIC: Wilco's exceedingly mellow Sky Blue Sky, above center, has die-hard fans split, but with its ruminations on singer Jeff Tweedy's recent painkiller addiction and recovery, there's no arguing it's of the moment. Tweedy's also to be found on Shrunken Heads by Ian Hunter, the dude who sang "All the Young Dudes," while downtown divo Rufus Wainwright gets melancholy (again) on Release the Stars.

BOOKS: Don DeLillo's long-awaited (and widely praised) 9/11 novel, Falling Man, arrives this week, as does Five Skies, short-story master Ron Carlson's first novel in 25 years. Robert Kurson's Crashing Through tells the true story of a man who regains his sight and finds life a blur, while Chris Salewicz's Redemption Song chronicles the too-short life of Joe Strummer.

DVDs: Pan's Labyrinth and The Fountain met deservedly different box office fates, though both are surreal enough to become stoner classics on video. Also out this week, two golden oldies: 1969 French WWII flick Army of Shadows, which only got an American theatrical release last year, and the record-smashing feature-length finale of M*A*S*H.

MOVIES: While screaming kids and sullen parents dutifully line up for Shrek the Third, hit the art house instead for The Wendell Baker Story, which Luke Wilson wrote and directed with his brother Andrew, or Fay Grim, Hal Hartley and Parker Posey's follow-up to 1997's much-praised Henry Fool.

WEB: The Interweb isn't exactly starving for cheap travel tips, but the soon-to-launch Yapta.com—short for Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant—offers something new. It monitors flights after you buy and notifies you when the price drops (i.e., when you become eligible for a money-saving voucher).

TV: Two ways to tell summer is finally coming: season finales for shows such as 24, Heroes, The Office, and Scrubs, and the arrival of filler like ABC's National Bingo Night. (It's Friday, in case you were wondering.)