Link Roundup

- Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum names his "Ten Favorite Offbeat Musicals" at DVDBeaver.com. The list really isn't all that offbeat -- nothing that compares to my insane and embarrassing fondness for Mardi Gras or The Petty Girl or The Girl Rush (mostly because it has the song "An Occasional Man" in it) -- but Rosenbaum's always worth reading.

- Earl Kress has a blog now. Kress is a veteran writer for cartoons and comics (he was one of the writers on Disney's The Fox and the Hound and worked on "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain") and an expert on the history of same, especially Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

- René Jacobs is one of the last remaining superstars of the classical recording world, probably the only conductor who still commands a recording contract that allows him to make big opera recordings every year. His newest recording is Mozart's last opera, La Clemenza Di Tito, a strange hybrid of old and then-new styles in opera: Mozart was handed an old Metastasio libretto that had been set by many other composers in the past; he had it revised somewhat to incorporate more ensemble numbers, but the finished product was an odd combination of Mozart's dramatic ability with the basically undramatic style of baroque opera seria. The music is wonderful, though. I haven't heard the recording, but this review makes it sound like a worthwhile purchase.