Amazon Music Bestsellers and Deals

Monday 20 November 2017

Complete Motown Singles CD Book Sets - A List of the 14 Releases from Hip-O Select with Basic Catalogue Numbers and Barcodes by Mark Barry...




Complete Motown Singles CD Book Sets
A List of all 14 Volumes Released Jan 2005 through to Dec 2013 (with Barcodes)

"The Motown Singles Collection" by Hip-O Select

75 x CD Volumes in 14 Volumes, 1847 CD Tracks Plus 28 Tracks On 14 x 7" Vinyl Singles:

Volume 1: 1959-1961, Released January 2005, Catalogue No. Hip-O Select B-0003631-02 (Barcode 602517643310), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 5000 (Non-Numbered), 155 Tracks, CDs are Volumes 1 to 6


Volume 2: 1962, May 2005, 4CDs, B-00004402-02 (Barcode 602517807552), Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non Numbered), 112 Tracks, Volumes 7 to 15

Volume 3: 1963, October 2005, B-0005352-02 (Barcode 602517845691), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non-Numbered), 119 Tracks, Volumes 11 to 15

Volume 4: 1964, February 2006, B-0005945-02 (Barcode 602517882443), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 163 Tracks, Volumes 16 to 21

Volume 5: 1965, August 2006, B-0006775-02 (Barcode 602517789414), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 166 Tracks, Volumes 22 to 27

Volume 6: 1966, November 2006, B-0007872-02 (Barcode 602517092761), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 125 Tracks, Volumes 28 to 32

Volume 7: 1967, May 2007, B-0008993-02 (Barcode 602517341906), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 120 Tracks, Volumes 33 to 37

Volume 8: 1968, October 2007, B-0009708-02 (Barcode 602517431775), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 144 Tracks, Volumes 38 to 43

Volume 9: 1969, December 2007, B-0010270-02 (Barcode 602517507722), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 6000 (Non-Numbered), 148 Tracks, Volumes 44 to 49

Volume 10: 1970, June 2008, B-0011056-02 (Barcode 602517659209), 6CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 144 Tracks, Volumes 50 to 55

Volume 11A: 1971, February 2009, B-0011579-02 (Barcode 602517776555), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non-Numbered), 119 Tracks, Volumes 56 to 60

Volume 11B: 1971, January 2010, B-0012227-02 (Barcode 602517876903), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 8000 (Non Numbered), 120 Tracks, Volumes 61 to 65

Volume 12A: 1972, May 2013, B-0012935-02 (Barcode 602527044453)), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non Numbered), 117 Tracks, Volumes 66 to 70

Volume 12B: 1972, December 2013, B-0019213-02 (Barcode 602537532193), 5CDs, Ltd Edition of 7500 (Non Numbered), 100 Tracks, Volumes 71 to 75

PS: If you can't afford the physical product in 2014 - the MP3 Downloads of each volume appear to be only £14.99 at present with individual tracks at 99p on Amazon...

Friday 17 November 2017

"The American President" on BLU RAY - A Review by Mark Barry


"...And I Wanted To Be Better Than The Last Guy..."


Before the genius of "The West Wing" - uber-writer Aaron Sorkin gave us the prelude film "The American President" starring Michael Douglas as a handsome and popular POTUS - Andrew Shepherd. Opening with a 63% popularity approval rating after three years of office - Douglas plays a smart and restrained President who is widowed in his private life and trying to raise a young daughter while he runs a complex country and staves off war just about everywhere.

Martin Sheen is brilliantly cast as The President's pal and top advisor - A.J. - Sheen already displaying the dialogue subtleties that would endear him to the world when he took the big oval chair four years after the movie in 1999's TV winner "The West Wing" (a show he dominated for seven years until Season 7 brought it to a close in 2006).

Throw in quality actors like White House staffer Ana Deavere Smith (who would go on to be in the West Wing TV show), newspaper editor John Mahoney (from "Frasier"), Michael J Fox and David Paymer as the hopeful and driven writers and policy makers for Shepherd's administration and the outside menace - an effective bad-guy in a smugger than smug Richard Dreyfuss - a political opponent who spots that the President's 'new girlfriend' the environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade is an opportunity to be exploited in a re-election environment by claiming that she’s privy to too many secrets (beautifully played by a luminous Annette Bening). Combined you get a rom-com with brains, a modern-day political satire with heart and all of it washed down with state dinners, situation room pathos (someone somewhere dies under the guise of a proportional response) and the sheer sexiness of power in the hands of good guys actually trying to do something lasting with it. Deftly directed by Rob Reiner - 1995's "The American President" was slickly written, superbly played and classy to the hilt.

The BLU RAY has an immaculate print - the best I've ever seen the movie look (an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen transfer). Re-watching it in this clarity has been a joy and makes me ache for the day someone-somewhere finally gives "The West Wing" a BLU RAY reissue akin to The Sopranos or The Wire - remastered and re-loaded. Disappointingly - and given that so much could have been expounded upon - the BLU RAY has zip in the way of Extras and Subtitles are only in English. At least there's a 5.1 Surround mix as well as the standard 2.0 Stereo.


So - beautiful to look at but let down by a lack of Extras that would have so enhanced this brilliant and underrated bit of movie magic. In the meantime enjoy this political feast - set back in a time when the words "American President" actually had some respect attached to them and not the buffoon presently disgracing the office on a daily basis...

INDEX - Entries and Artist Posts in Alphabetical Order