It was the strangest thing. After I saw Burning Dreams, a film shot in Shanghai, China by a Taiwanese filmmaker, at the Kabuki Theater in Japantown, and riding home to the predominantly Mexican Mission District, every time I heard a foreign language phrase that I understood, I would see subtitles! I'm hoping it's just my imagination. As long as I don't start seeing subtitles for phrases I'm not supposed to understand . . . or would that be really cool?

"Burning Dreams" was excellent, it will be a must-have if it comes out on DVD. I particularly loved it because it was about dance, and I'm no dancer, but I love dance. I'm also partial to filmed dance because a director or an editor is controlling where you look and focuses you on something specific. What the camera is doing is probably more than half of what I appreciate about watching dance. It's a totally different art than live dance.

But I loved "Burning Dreams" because it covers modern dancers as a subculture in Shanghai, China. As such, they are extremely passionate and committed, and their energy and dreams communicate like an electric charge on screen. There's nothing like seeing people who really love what they're doing, even if, or especially in an environment where they will never reach the heights they dream of. The film doesn't give much background on modern dance, or dance even, in China. There is a subtext of cultural conformity and political repression that isn't touched on, although subtley hinted at, ironically by the teacher of the dance school against one of his own students. It doesn't hurt either that the dancers were beautiful. It was also beautifully shot in black and white. The soundtrack was also killer, using a lot of classic rock and roll (the typed that swung. swinged. swang?).

I decided not to spend $12 on the Metallica documentary last night because I spent way too much money on Saturday night, checking out Kristin Hersh's new band 50 Foot Wave at Cafe du Norde. It was the first live show I've been to since Supergrass in August! It's hard to believe how completely I've fallen out of any music scene. Part of me was almost nostalgic. The parts that were decidedly not nostalgic included my knees.

Speaking of must-haves on DVD, this is being released tomorrow. I would say it's a must-have for Sondheim fans and theater buffs. No dancing, but the staging and direction is mind-blowing. I would also say the performances are definitive, but I haven't seen any other stagings of the show, so I really don't know. I just know George Hearn is spine-tingling in the title role.