Leaderboard

I finished the audiobook of this last week. My third "reading" full of this tome. Even though is less then half the size of Tolkien's most famous work, I never seized to be amazed on how expansive it actually it. Encompassing, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, or millions even. From the Music Of The Ainur and the creation of the Universe, to the start of the Fourth Age. The full narrative is nothing if not unwieldy because of this. And because of the endless array of characters, many with more than one name, locations, many with more than one name, events, and the detailed descriptions of titles, heraldry, genealogy etc etc. I'm convinced there are many who slaved their way to the seeming endless passages of LOTR and emerged victorious at its final pages who attempted The Sil and just said "Fuck this". There's something brilliantly evokative about this book though, like there is to Tolkien's legendarium in general. And The Silmarillion gives you more of it than any other book. In my experience it gets to a gripping bit of narrative just when you think you've had enough of another detailed description of Beleriant. Just some of my personal favs. The Music of the Ainur and their initial introduction. The coming of the Noldor to Valinor. Anything with Feanor in it. Ungòliant! The Kinslaying, the Doom of Mandos. Of Beren and Luthien, and in particular Huor, the Hound of Valinor, and of course Eärendil the Mariner, who out of desperation found the Undying Lands, with a Silmarillion upon his brow. And ALL of Akallabêth! This was of course released posthumously, by Tolkien the Younger because his father seemed to have been unable to shape the narrative in a way he was happy with, and let it get the better of him. There are inconsistencies, even if one doesn't reference any of Tolkien's other works. Taken from a variety of sources the book goes from being incredibly detailed about seemingly minor events to glossing over import stuff in chapters thag read almost like a summary. Its a pity that the pivotal chapter of Tuor and the coming to Gondolin feels so...rushed. especially compared to similar parts like Beren and Luthien and especially Túrin Turambar. (Undoubtedly the most depressing stuff ever written by this author) Christopher Tolkien regretted some of his editorial choices apparently, but never attempted to redo to book, which I think is unfortunate. After decades of going though his dad's notes...who knows. Such flaws aside, this remains a...or THE pivotal work in Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology. Brummie actor Martin Shaw reads this, and despite his occasionally questionable pronounciation of certain names, (he pronounces Ilúvatar in a way I would have never considered, and its ICEngard, not Is-engard) he certainly has the dramatic panache for the material. I actually think he did a great job.

To hell with the X Men and Fantastic Four, we just want Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4.

A treasure. Boston Pops Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Boston, 1993 (May 12, Opening Season’s Concert)

Hey guys ! I teamed up with my good friend @Martyprod to create this album of Piano/Horn/Trumpet covers ( and more ) It's called 1M1 and it's available everywhere : http://hyperurl.co/1m1 And if you want to know more about it here's the official website : https://1m1.didiermartini.com/ Oh and the whole album is also available on Youtube, with a cool video for each track Here are some of the JW ones :

Memoirs of a Geisha by John Williams: I'd love to see a complete release of this gem in the future. Gorgeous stuff all around.

TNG really peaked in its first season. It was all downhill after that.

I never really listened to her much, but she had an amazing voice and I'll always associate her with The Blues Brothers...I had no idea who she was when I saw this movie as a kid but she rocked that scene, and it left a big impression on me.

Great selection and performances! Here's one of my favorites:

Yeah. @Jurassic Shark has been ingesting too much melange.

Oysters with chips it is then!

But those were Spaghetti Westerns so naturally they would hire a person from the native land of spaghetti who knows how to score it properly! Really gets the tagliatelle feel of the whole thing you know.

Americans are basically Brits anyway.

Even the OST gets repetitive. The complete score has some nice moments, but it's overkill. Just stick with the album and edit it down.

#2 is better.

Quexit

BEN-HUR: magnificent, CE3K: beyond criticism. To me, THE MISSION is Morricone's SCHINDLER'S LIST: I see the greatness in it, I really do, but it just doesn't move me. THE THING, on the other hand... THE MISSION is that rare bird, where I like the film, but don't like the score.

So that's how he's planning to take the throne from JW...

You know its true, how nice!

I will never play BOTW in this way, but boy is it fun to watch these videos of the crazy shit people figure out.

Judging by his score "La Califfa" he wanted to raise the number of suicides.

Judging by some of his scores...

Yea, I getcha. I don't mind the program ending that way. It's nice. Like all their problems are solved, and they can go off quietly into the night.

Bespin needs to create a list of his mistakes/corrections/inaccuracies/confusions in his lists.

With music by Ennio Macaroni.

I admit to liking the overly dramatic music that opens and closes each section.

FUCK YOU!!!!!

@publicist, I think that's STALAG 17. ACE IN THE HOLE, is pure acid, and it's bloody brilliant. "Panties".

Even though mostly adults watch their movies anyway.

12 Years a Slave was an incredible film. Will be interested to see McQueen’s new one for sure.

The last time i had oysters (Bangkok) i had a whopping diarrhea on my 14-hour home flight. Ahh, the memories.

I would practically never listen to it because of the annoying Long Hair motif which is everywhere, like sand after a visit to the beach. And I don't buy CDs I'm not going to listen to, and I'm certainly not buying it for the inaccurate liner notes. The concert overture contains all I really need.

Too much dynamic range!

Christ I thought this label went belly up in secret. This is their first update in over a year.

...the end... the one who is many.

The kicker is that he challenged Jason Schreier to find more examples of plagiarism, and he did in droves. He even copied his LinkedIn resume word for word from a template website. Worst bluff in history. IGN is now scrubbing the entire site of all his content. Dozens of other articles and reviews he has written have been plagiarized.

Not a fan of DeGrasse Tyson. He has this air of condescension like a teenager who just discovered atheism

Has anyone posted "For Seiji"? I totally forgot I have it (thanks petercelli) if we need to post it. Some call it John Williams' Concerto for Orchestra.

This is true. Part of that is because he wasn't just a scientist but a visionary, philosopher, artist, communicator, entertainer. Remember, scientists and engineers hated the whole idea of his pale blue dot image which was one of the most powerfully moving and transcending images ever taken. Though not the equal to Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson is the closest we have these days. He has a weekly show called Startalk that is co-hosted by a comedian for christ's sake...and it is a great show. I enjoy every episode. This one for example is great fun and enlightening: He is both mind blowing and down to earth, not easy for a guy with a PhD in Astrophysics to do. Go Neil! Plus I love his Shatneresque swagger. 😜

Fire them all. The new movies are horrible.

Matessino saved on a technicality!

You really need to buy this release man

Not quite that tasty. Karol

Carl Sagan's Cosmos was a masterpiece. It is full of hokey animations like this one: and actually part of why it is so great is how it wasn't just about space but earth. It combined literature, history, philosophy, with science and did so beautifully. The final episode "Who Speaks for Earth?" is very poetic conclusion to the series in that it transcends science and is infused with humanity. The same formula of Cosmic science mixed with history, philosophy, art, literature, etc., is used in the modern series. Both series are equally preachy and I say "preach it brother"!

Simple: to hopefully draw more people's attention to the artistically damaging trend that hacks with choppy samples now score major Hollywood films, and this wretched output by a wretched copycat composer/programmer is a prime opportunity to do so, because it's a project with widespread interest. But of course it's easier and more satisfying to basically throw the entire thing away and accuse the author of malicious intent, than to focus on the actual point.

All proceeds go to sad charity case, Jeff Bezos

The Post

Just buy a pair of shoes and walk.

I've never been a huge fan of any of the Beatles' post-breakup output, at least not in the "full album" sense of the word. Lots of good songs from all four, even Ringo on occasion. Chaos and Creation was a pretty good McCartney album though, IMO.