YES!!!  At last it has come to pass:  Fats Waller gets the Proper treatment.  More than any insurance policy, the music of Fats Waller will keep you sleeping safe and sound, knowing that you have bullet-proof protection from the blues.  It's simply impossible to be down when Fats is on:  He'll turn your frown upside-down.  Of all the great personalities of jazz, Fats is -- aside from Louis Armstrong -- probably the greatest. Fats would be a legend just for his mastery of the keyboard with which he launched his career,  but he has so much more to offer.  He crafted a true persona which he then donned for each and every performance.  And what performances!  Fats was the very embodiment of entertainment.  And finally, there's the songs themselves.  While Fats could take practically any tin-pan alley tune -- like, for example, My Very Good Friend the Milkman -- and transform it into a timeless classic, he also happened to be one of the greatest song writers of all times.  He brought a jazz sensibility to show tunes and a show tune sensibility to jazz.  Some, like Ain't Misbehavin',  have become standards, interpreted over and over again by cats of all colors, able to be made fresh each time. Others, like Squeeze Me, belong to Fats alone.  The people of Proper Records really had their work cut out for them with this one:  how do you bring the whole of Fats when you have a mere four CDs?  It's painful to leave out even one timeless classic!  Handful of Keys proves once again why Proper Records is the reigning champion of classic jazz packages:  On 100 big tracks, Fats is here in all his glory, from his early days as keyboard prodigy to his final blazing days of songmanship.  This is a set that will bring a lifetime of enjoyment.  If Fats isn't part of your life, then, man, you ain't livin'!  As with all Proper Box sets, this one contains five hours of music mastered with the jazz EQ in mind by people who know what they're doing, and comes complete with a 48 page career overview and appreciation by the Mr. Know-It-All of classic jazz, Joop Visser, and, to top it all off, a complete track by track breakdown of who played what on each and every song as well as when and where it was recorded.  It's a proper deal!  Here's the complete track listing and discography.

Copacetic Comics is amazed to present our second Depression Buster Bargain™:  ••>>  A mind-boggling box of 21 discs featuring just about everything ever produced for television under the aegis of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and then some, at an equally mind-boggling price!  The complete series, three live films, one German television show, six personal best shows, two NEW documentary films and bonus galore!  What can we say about Monty Python that hasn't been said before?  Taking the angsty absurdity of post-WWII European existentialists across the English channel and then running it through the Goon Show grinder, and, via American ex-pat and former Harvey Kurtzman underling,Terry Gilliam, adding a touch of Mad, the Python posse somehow stumbled on a secret formula involving a heretofore unseen combination of startlingly original format, style and sense of humor that gave birth to a once in a lifetime television experience that is now available at what may be a once in a lifetime price.  Perfect timing, we say.  Read the long description for more details.

With Titus, Julie Taymor proves herself to be one of the very few film directors to successfully employ the visual vocabulary invented by Italian Film Director Federico Fellini and make it speak to her own concerns.  That she did so while simultaneously wedding it to the vocabulary, aims and genius of Shakespeare makes this film a truly spectacular achievement.  Click on image to read our full review of this amazing film.  Recommended!