MOVIE: Die Welle (The Wave)

Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and several dozen others throughout the next year, the German film Die Welle - translated literally as The Wave - has been a hit with critics and audiences alike. The story is based on book of the same title by Todd Strasser, and occurs at a German high school where a teacher, attempting to engage his pupils in a week-long civics lesson on autocracies, ends up turning his class into a dictatorship that extends beyond the walls of the classroom and even the school itself. Both book and film were inspired by a Palo Alto, California, history teacher named Ron Jones who performed a similar social experiment at Cubberley High School in April of 1967.

Powerful both in the fact that it takes place in contemporary society and in the realistic dialogue between the students in and out of class, the film shows the viewer just how easily ideas can be manipulated and people can be coerced. Near the beginning of the movie, on the first day of the course, many of the students claim that a dictatorship could and would never be allowed to happen in modern Germany again. By the end of the story - all dressed alike with new "recruits" and gang-style greeting gesture - gathered together in the school auditorium, they get a good look at what they've become.

Sergio del Limonar

WEBSITE: StoryCorps

Why did Grandma never throw out that old dusty-green hat in the back of her closet, but never wear it either? Is there a reason Aunt Rita and Uncle Stan live so far away from the rest of the immediate family? How did Great-Grandpa acquire that Ming vase? And what's with that rickety old shed in Old Man Nathanson's backyard that he cares for so intently?

Stories are important. They teach us lessons, entertain us, make us laugh, or cause tears to fall. Regardless of the length, purpose, or teller, my the end of a story, we have been arguably changed just a little bit.

StoryCorps is an organization that serves as a forum for people to share their stories with each other in a familial and historical setting. Often heard on NPR, recorded conversations, about anything the listening participant wants to know, can be found stored in the Library of Congress for all to discover.

I often think about how fortunate we are to have documentary interviews - and out takes, no doubt - from the last remembering survivors of such events as the Titanic or the landing on Omaha Beach D-Day morning in Normandy. But it's just as important to save the smaller-scale stories; the vignettes that might have changes the lives of only a few but were just as important to those few.

Go to the blog portion of this site and check out some of the videos and stories "from the road." Beware, though, for you might be here for several hours! The people, much like their stories, are captivating!

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Ainsley McNeaney

The last time I bought an album that worked for most any occasion (singalong, work, play, cleaning) was Sarah McLaughlan's Surfacing. In 1997. So, I'm a little picky. The next time was when I bought Ainsley McNeaney's True Story Orchestra (2008). McNeaney is a singing, songwriting, arranging, producing, phenomenon. True Story Orchestra is her first album as artist and first release as producer. However, the sophisticated orchestration (think butterscotch light mixed with just a little bit of peeling white paint from a seaside house and brassy silver buttons) belies her classical background. A classical percussionist - she graduated from the University of Toronto's Music program in sticks and mallets - the twelve songs on this album feature banjos, marimba, tambourine, trombones and a string section. This strong instrumental variety successfully teases strands of jazz, cabaret, swing and circus through the pop pieces.

For anyone who has always played nice, done their best, and found they can't recognize themselves for the role they've played, McNeaney asks, "Who did you kill to secure all that moon in your eyes?" in her song, "This Girl". It is a liberating call for the removal of restrictive masks and authentic soul-searching. The anthemic "Closer" opens with solo banjo and develops into a full-fledged, open-throated, windows-down car belting song about the fears behind, and acceptance of, taking risks in life. When you're done, you've already whirled yourself around the dancefloor and you can wait until tomorrow: you've "got the next day to find [your] way home." Finally, another highlight, reminiscent of Sarah McLaughlan's "Adia" and Rufus Wainwright's "Natasha", the glowing "Marianne" falls solidly in the songwriting tradition of song as witness. All three posit the song as the songwriter's best way to support a friend on a self-destructive track.

McNeaney is clearly a musician and not your everyday singer-songwriter. I hope for more refinement in her lyrics in the future, but ultimately McNeaney's voice, its roars, cries and calls in the dark elevate the album to a must-have.

Listen here and if you like it, it is $9.99 on iTunes, or available on ainsleymcneaney.com .

Bee