MOVIE | I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
Julie Doiron / Jagjaguwar
It’s Julie Doiron. We love Julie Doiron unconditionally ’round these parts. She has one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful voices in the business, often responsible for turning what might have been otherwise so-so folk-pop ditties into devastating meditations on loss and mourning. Even when the keys are major and the melodies are uplifting—like in her latest for perennial local favorite Jagjaguwar—the aching tenderness in her voice reveals layers of honest vulnerability that other, lesser singers can only aspire to. Really, you kind of want to hold her close and tell her everything is all right, even when everything apparently is all right.

MUSIC | Loveless
My Bloody Valentine / Sony BMG
You know, this brand-new edition of this perpetually storied album reminds me a bit of when Rhino triumphantly released “re-mastered” versions of the Jesus and Mary Chain—a bit laughable, hilariously unnecessary, and ultimately useless. As far as I can tell, Shields’ definitive version of this now-classic album is a little bit louder. Pass on this one, unless you’re one of the few souls who have yet to hear this modern classic.

MUSIC | Beware
Bonnie Prince Billy / Drag City
Another year, another album from our Bonnie Prince. It is, as always, a hit-and-miss affair, sorely in need of an editor; some of the songs are pure wistful gold, while others will grate on your nerves, and yet others sound more like they were drunkenly thrown together in the studio with little thought or preparation. Once again, the man is best experienced live; only his most ardent fans will find this disc a worthwhile purchase.

MOVIE | Fidel!
Saul Landau / Microcinema
Here are three ways to ruin any good dinner party: 1). Talk about abortion. 2). Start chatting about how we live in a “post-racial” society now. 3). Mention El Comandante. No man in recent history has inspired as much vitriol and admiration—often from the same people—as dear old Fidel. While this documentary veers dangerously close to propaganda at times, it’s still a fascinating view of one of the most charismatic men to ever grace history, and a beautifully shot window into early post-Revolution Cuba.

BOOK | A Jury of Her Peers
Elaine Showalter / Knopf
This might be the first attempt to offer a history of American women writers from the last 350 years. At its best, it’s incisive and deeply edifying; at its worst, it can seem flimsy. I just finished a biography of John Cheever that clocks in at 700 pages; devoting merely 600 pages to an unjustly ignored part of our cultural heritage seems, at first glance, trivial. But as a comprehensive survey by a single scholar, it’s a masterful piece of work, and well worth the price of admission.