Overrated/Underrated: A Coen brothers misfire and 20 years of cosmic funk with Galactic

UNDERRATED

Galactic’s “Coolin’ Off”: Maybe best known outside of music circles as the band that once helped get Wendell Pierce’s character into a bit of trouble in David Simon’s HBO series “Treme,” the New Orleans group Galactic made an auspicious debut with this album. Boasting a swampy mix of R&B, funk and jazz led by growling keyboards, swerving horns and the water-tight grooves of drummer Stanton Moore, “Coolin’ Off” helped anchor a bustling acid jazz and jam band scene in the late ’90s upon its release 20 years ago on the San Francisco label Fog City. A ferocious live band, Galactic has incorporated hip-hop and electronic music into its mix over the years, but they’ve never topped the smoky, perfectly after-hours atmosphere here.

Iceland defeats England 2-1 in the Euro 2016 round of 16 match.

(Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images )

The European Championships on ESPN: Like soccer’s World Cup but with fewer hastily built stadiums and confined to, you know, Europe, this tournament held every four years has been a feast for sports fans. After a rough start amid some hooligan violence, the Euros have since been counterbalanced by viral clips of incorrigibly cheerful mobs of singing Irish fans, Icelandic underdogs becoming Viking legends by reaching the quarterfinals and the traditional crash-and-burn of the England team, whose departure was greeted with plenty of arch commentary in light of the recent “Brexit.” Heading into the semifinals who knows if the ending can be as rewarding, but it still beats the recent corruption and controversy surrounding the Olympics and the NFL.

OVERRATED

“Hail, Caesar!” (2016): At the time of this film’s release, various film and pop culture sites began ranking the Coen brothers’ films from best to worst, which is a kind way of admitting this one, their latest, belongs very close to the bottom. Occupying the same vintage Hollywood universe as “Barton Fink,” “Hail, Caesar!” seems to exist solely as a means for the Coens to try their hand at some classic filmmaking. Can they shoot a kaleidoscopic water ballet with Scarlett Johansson as a mermaid? Sure! Can they film a campy song-and-dance sequence with Channing Tatum? Absolutely. But apart from those moments and a few inspired cameos from Ralph Fiennes and Frances McDormand, they can’t find a story memorable enough to make you care.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay purchased Prince’s Yellow Cloud electric guitar for $137,500 at an auction.

(Eugene Garcia / EPA )

Extreme memorial purchases: By any measure, 2016 has been a tough year in terms of artistic losses. But as much as we’re going to miss the likes of Prince and David Bowie, some recent sales of their artifacts are saying far more about the discretionary income of their fans than their legacy. The high price of various Beatles artifacts make the recent $137,500 purchase of one of Prince’s guitars – by an obscenely wealthy owner of an NFL team, naturally – somewhat expected, but news of a lock of Bowie’s hair selling at auction for nearly $20,000 again raises the question of what purpose owning such an artifact could serve. It might look good under glass, but wouldn’t buying and donating a chunk of their catalog to music programs do more to keep their memories alive?