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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/06/14 in all areas

  1. Report time. My recent 10-day trip to the US East coast can be separated in half with two very different and distinct experiences – first New York, then Boston (to see Williams live). This is only about the Boston bit, as the New York bit (including a film music gathering) was covered in this FSM thread. After an intoxicating (in more sense than one) 5 days in New York, I arrived in Boston on Friday. Not going to bore you with all the sightseeing stuff, but a brief summation will do before I get to the event itself. On Friday, I basically just walked around my neighbourhood in South End and a little bit of downtown. On Saturday, before the concert, I took the subway to the Samuel Adams Brewery where I had a brilliant tour of the facilities (with a somewhat drunk, but enthusiastic guide who apparently drinks beers with all his groups). Then I headed back downtown to cover the upper part of the Freedom trail. Went to the Bunker Hill monument and hiked all 300 steps to the top, after which I got a severe cramp in my legs (due to the large amount of walking I'd done on the trip previously). Walked a bit more downtown before I headed back to the hostel to change. Off to Uno's, where I was the first to arrive. Had a beer at the bar before the others arrived. What a great experience – both the food and the company. Relieved to see no one wanting a piece of me because of a certain opinion I hold on a certain matter. Here's a photo of us all at Uno's: Then it was off to the Symphony hall. As others have said, the mayhem in front of the stage door was rather embarassing. I kept a safe distance, as that's not really my kind of thing, but managed to shoot this picture: Probably the closest I'll ever get to meeting John Williams. Into the hall we went, and I was placed right in front of the stage. Great closeness (only 3-4 meters from the podium), but too much to the side so I had to turn my head 90 degrees to see Williams (partly obscured by a cellist). Next time, I want the same closeness, but more in the middle. But it was fantastic to see the man up-close – all his gestures, facial expressions etc. Something I didn't experience at the Hollywood Bowl two years ago, where I was seated, like, 50 kilometers away. The fact that there were two other strangers sitting at my table didn't mean anything. They were nice to talk to, and we mostly focussed on the music anyway. The highlight for me was hearing Williams perform the JURASSIC PARK theme – my alltime favourite score. The combination of that, and the closeness to the man himself almost made me tear up a bit. All the other selections were brilliant and have been covered by others already. "Cadillac of the Skies" from EMPIRE OF THE SUN reminded me again how gorgeous that score is, especially when it taps into elements of the 'religious sound'. I couldn't hear the choir very well from my position, but it was a nice colouring to the orchestral palette. That goes for the other choral pieces too. I wasn't particularly intersted in the segments from the Broadway/musical/dance world which opened the second half, so I focussed 90% on Williams instead of the big screen. But fun to see his own arrangement of "The Varsity Drag" in concert (which he did in the 50s). I never expected that. Three encores – "Yoda's Theme", "The Imperial March" and the "Flying Theme" from E.T. That's a great bonus. After the concert, we waited for like an hour outside the stage door again, with an incredibly large crowd. My hope of getting a personal photograph with the man quickly faded, especially after the stage manager came out to say that he was feeling a bit under the weather and would just be rushed to the car. And rushed he was – he barely had the time to wave to the crowd, as the security guards practically pushed him into the car and off he went. Well, for us the night wasn't over. We trailed on over to a pub in the Back Bay area (close to my hostel, which was perfect), and others have recounted that already. I was somewhat disappointed that Boston seemingly closes everywhere at 2 AM, which is relatively early and only gave us like 3 hours to socialize. I wanted to keep going, preferable with karaoke!  But there you go. Thanks again to Jason for putting it all together (and for the IPA!), and for all the fellow JWFANners I finally got to meet in real life. And thanks to Koray for showing up, so there were at least TWO Zimmer fans there, including myself. I also shot a brief film of Williams exiting the symphony hall. I'll see if I can put that up later. Meanwhile, here are a couple of more pictures (apparently, the board doesn't allow me to post more than two pics pr. post, so you'll have to click the links: http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston2.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston3.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston4.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston5.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston6.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston7.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston8.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston9.jpg http://www.celluloidtunes.no/non-website/boston10.jpg On Sunday, I did the rest of the Freedom trail and some other stuff. On Monday before departure, I visited Harvard University and the Cambridge area. The only sour thing is that several of my items were either lost or stolen at the hostel -- an iPod, an expensive dictaphone, a Mastercard, a 'code activator' for the bank and my house and bicycle keys(!). Other than that, top experience from start to finish!
    4 points
  2. My name's Smeltington and this is my story... I flew out of Atlanta Thursday morning with my friend and fellow JWFan, known as jwalk713 on the forum. We had two days to enjoy Boston, a lot of which we spent outdoors biking through various parks and greenways, renting a boat, going to the beach (Castle Island), etc. We also took some time to visit a couple of comic and record stores. We found an old Starlog magazine from 1979 with fascinating articles about David Prowse, an upcoming movie called Alien, etc. The weather was good, our spirits were high, and the good people of Boston were treated to more than a few of our impromptu renditions of JW themes. We were staying in the same hostel as Thor, but from the sound of it I think we enjoyed the experience a bit more than he did. On Saturday we joined everyone for dinner at Uno, and for the rest of the evening we enjoyed the company of Jason, Marcy, Thor, Nightscape, and quite a few others. We got to meet fellow Atlantan and Superman enthusiast Croweyes1121. I also had the privilege of speaking to JWFan member ins and his friend, who were visiting from Germany on a John Williams pilgrimage ten years in the making. I learned I need to give Tintin another listen, and ins reached a greater understanding of Lapti Nek, a track he had overlooked, much to his own peril. Jwalk and I had a fantastic time meeting everyone. It was a great group of people, and I don't think we've gotten over the shock of being in a roomful of people capable of discussing the music of The Terminal, the Winter Games Fanfare, and Short Round's Theme. We waited around outside Symphony Hall with everyone else to try for autographs, I with my HPSS CD and jwalk with his Superman CD - his first Williams purchase ever. It was crowded, though, and when Williams arrived there were unfortunately a lot of rude and shameless people being very pushy and not very respectful to Williams. He was gracious enough to sign a few things anyway. The interior of Symphony Hall was gorgeous. We were up on the balcony, third level, on the right side. I always like to avoid looking at the program, so each piece performed was a surprise to me, but I did catch strains of Jurassic Park and Hook as the orchestra members warmed up. The chorus was a very pleasant surprise. I was extra excited for Flight to Neverland, Adventures of Mutt, Sound the Bells, and Call of the Champions. And I never get tired of hearing Harry's Wondrous World or anything from Star Wars. I think Jason covered everything after the concert in his post. All in all it was a wonderful evening, and I'd like to thank Jason for organizing the meetup, and all the JWFans in attendance just for being so awesome Let's all do this again!
    4 points
  3. publicist

    "I need my pain!"

    Not related to STAR TREK V, but fitting in the general timeframe: a photo i found on FSM featuring Goldsmith, JNH, David Newman and Charles Fox socializing. http://www.asturscore.com/memories-of-jerry-goldsmith/2/
    2 points
  4. Damn, what an awesome day Saturday was! There was 12 of us that met up for dinner before the show - myself, Thor, Koray Savas, nightscape94, Smeltington, Croweyes1121, ins, and various companions / girlfriends / wives. We all had a great time chatting about a variety of topics, and then walked over to Symphony Hall. We waited for Williams to sign autographs before the show, and when he arrived in his windbreaker he did sign for a bunch of people, but none of us got anything. The show was great, with many pieces performed I had never heard before (and unfortunately several that I had heard 3-4 times already, though that's only a minor quibble). The coolest part was that there was the Tanglewood Festival Choir was on stage during the first half, and sang for Cadillac of the Skies and a few other pieces. So awesome! After the show, there were more people waiting outside to try to get a glimpse of Williams and hopefully an autograph than ever before, and by a large margin. There were people waiting on the other side of the street!! A security guard came out twice to tell us that Williams was under the weather and would not be signing anything - and both times, NO ONE left When he finally did come out, he just went right into his car (though he did wave to everyone), and that was it. After that, we walked to a bar called CIty Bar where the 12 of us - plus Joe Brausaum and his 2 friends from last year - joined us as well. The bar was not quite as big as I thought it was, and we ended up being separated into smaller groups. But eventually the group united towards the end of the night, as some people left and the group got smaller. We stayed there drinking and chatting until the bar closed at 2am! Overall just a great day in the city of Boston. I met Thor and survived! I'll post more thoughts on the concert and the gatherings, as well as post all the great pictures I have on Marcy's camera - tomorrow!
    2 points
  5. I guess I'd rather have random Star Wars movies than some about new Marvel supeheroes I don't give a shit about
    1 point
  6. 1 point
  7. Wycket

    Blu-ray News and Deals

    Right, because someone wanting to own a movie and not waiting years for it to discount that low is so unfathomable to comprehend. Completely beyond the realm of human imagination.
    1 point
  8. Sounds like a great time. I've gotta try and make it next year.
    1 point
  9. No one seems to have mentioned Maeaster Aemon's scene from this episode yet. Peter Vaughan is a wonderful actor and surely had his best scene of the entire series so far there.
    1 point
  10. For reasons completely unknown to me: "Maggie Shoots Pool".
    1 point
  11. Successful dinner with 12 JWFans in attendance! We took a lot of pictures, will post them tomorrow None of us got a JW autograph before the show, but maybe 6 random fans did. JW arrived in the limo, got out wearing a windbreaker, quickly signed a few things then headed in. At our seats now on the concert floor!
    1 point
  12. Hey, hyperbole is the only legitimate means of communication on this forum, right? It's just a statement ahead of its time!
    1 point
  13. So I just signed up for this forum to share my excitement about going to this upcoming concert. The fact that they're going to have Williams and Spielberg in the same building is going to be nothing short of breathtaking. Unfortunately not many people I know care that much about symphonic music so while they express curiosity at how cool it will be to see Steven Spielberg, they're less inclined to indulge in conversation about my passion for Williams movie scores. And it's not going to be cheap either. I honestly didn't think I was going to get tickets at all for a moment because from the moment they went on sale, the website went down and the phone lines were impossible to get through. Fortunately, at the last minute I realized that the mobile app might have less traffic on it and was completely correct. Unfortunately, the only tickets left were dress circle and while I wasn't initially prepared to spend $500 total on two tickets for my girlfriend and I, I quickly changed my mind when I realized that this is probably literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. As active as Williams is, he's still a man in his 80's and the thought of missing the opportunity to see him conduct some of his greatest pieces of music (completely irrespective of the fact that the man who was the impetus for so many of these cues is going to be there!) would have been crushing. So as it stands, I'm anxiously counting down the days (24!) to see what could be one of the greatest experiences of my life. If anyone is interested, I'll post my reactions after the show. If not, at least thanks for providing this forum as an opportunity to share thoughts that aren't as well received with my circle of friends.
    1 point
  14. I don't see why these two projects couldn't be merged. #KGBFG.
    1 point
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