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“I’m Not There”
Todd Haynes’ film about the legendary Bob Dylan was released in the United States last year, but will be shown in Korea this week. The soundtrack features two discs of Dylan’s songs covered by Sonic Youth, Jack Johnson, Antony and the Johnsons and Yo La Tengo.
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers do well on “All Along the Watchtower,” and so does John Doe on “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who both starred in the hit film “Once,” perform one of the most enjoyable tracks “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”
Sonic Youth channels Dylan on “I’m Not There,” but it doesn’t compare to the original version. The previously unreleased version of “I’m Not There” is the only song performed by Dylan on the soundtrack.
-Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Home Before Dark
One of the most renowned singer/songwriters, Neil Diamond is back with his new album “Home Before Dark.”
The album hit number one on the Billboard album charts this month, a first time in Diamond’s music career.
“Home Before Dark” defines the music of Diamond, with the gentle strings of his guitar and inspiring lyrics. The single “Pretty Amazing Grace” draws the listener with his deep yet raw voice, while “Another Day That Time Forgot” is a relaxing duet with Dixie Chicks’ member Natalie Maines.
“Making music is my life, the one constant I can’t live without. It’s more than a desire or yearning: It’s a necessity,” he writes on the album. “Home Before Dark” will lead you to the journey of Diamond’s music of maturity and desire.

koreatimes.co.kr

Someone, apparently a fanatic fan of Jolin Tsai, has paid NT$40,200 to get 23 sesame seeds she was alleged to have dropped off on a paper napkin while she was munching her Kentucky Fried Chicken burger, the United Daily News reported yesterday.
Jolin is a very young pop singer, who has acquired a sizable following over the past five years.
But she denied through her agent she never ate at the chicken-burger outlet as was claimed. "It’s a fake," Jolin was quoted by her agent as saying. "They (sesame seeds) are not mine. I never visited that Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet."
The sesame seeds were put on an auction on Yahoo Kimo on March 17. The seller, identified only as qqboya, only showed the 23 seeds on a paper napkin online.
The floor price was NT$1 a seed. In its sales pitch, the seller claimed he saw Jolin at a Taipei Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet on March 14.
He took a picture of the paper napkin with the sesame seeds and told would-be buyers he watched Jolin munch the chicken burger with gusto.
Are they the seeds Jolin actually dropped?
"I am an honest dealer," said the seller. "I didn’t take a picture of Jolin eating the chicken burger," he went on, adding: "I can only swear that Jolin dropped them."
The seller also recommended that Henry Lee, a Chinese-born forensic expert in the United States, be asked to run a DNA test on the sesame seeds in question.
Lee was invited back to Taiwan in 2004 to run a series of forensic tests for the mystery-shrouded shooting in Taiwan. One homemade bullet grazed President Chen Shui-bian’s abdomen in what police described as an assassination attempt on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. Chen was reelected, thanks to sympathy votes cast on the following day.

chinapost.com.tw