russds

It was great.
Boston Common is a really nice theater. Classic movie posters, murals and quotes everywhere. Nice. We arrived a little late into Raiders during the temple scene. Movies all looked good, although from close up the resolution wasn't quite as high as I was expecting. They still looked great. Raiders kinda lost focus at points (and not the usual instances) and there was some kind of weird fuzziness at times, like the blue sky in the opening of Last Crusade. But I guess that's always been there since I had it on VHS.
Temple of Doom was easily the best time and the one the audience seemed most into. It's the ultimate popcorn movie. Once again I was made to question whether or not Raiders is truly the best one. It's a great film yes, but there's no more rollicking, rousing, action-packed roller coaster ride of a movie than Temple of Doom.
Thoughts on Temple:
- Easily the best score. I know many hold the others in high regard (for good reason), but God damn! Williams' presence in a film has never been greater! There's a reason all the women are spreading their legs for him in the opening credits.
- Everyone disagrees, but I like Willie. I love how wrong she is for Indy and turns out to be so right. They have great chemistry in a kind of Han Solo/Princess Leia way.
- Short Round is the greatest sidekick of all time.
- The scene where the big guy goes into the rock crusher makes me think more than any Kubrick or whoever's thinking man's films ever will. Was Indy trying to save that guy or was he just using the rope to get up to the catwalks? In fact, we will never know.
- Few movies have created such serious tension as when Indy falls into the black sleep. The scene where they make him drink the blood is super intense.
- Every shot of Harrison Ford in this is a masterpiece. Literally.

I finally had a chance to share my thoughts on the concert (the first one on August 31):
I have been to four JW Hollywood Bowl and this was Probably the best. As you can see from the program it was not just the usual smattering of his most well known tunes...there was some really cool stuff that I had never heard in concert before.
The pieces chosen were also playable given the set up of the orchestra. I remember one year he played "Dance of the Witches," and during the trumpet solo at the end the sound was lost to the whirring of the orchestra. I'm not sure it would be possible to change that without a studio mix or a microphone. This time none of the pieces felt like that--sure the mix did not sound exactly like the definitive recordings, and as a trombonist I would have loved to hear more prominent low brass, but the most important parts were always the most prominent, and the details were never lost.
In terms of unreleased arrangements, this concert was a gold mine. We got the new arrangement of "Song for World Peace," which was awesome (although the new piece seems to climax twice, which is a little strange). We got the concert version of Marion's Theme, beautifully performed. We. Got the concert suite from War Horse, with a very nice flute solo (although to be honest I thought the decrescendo at the end of the first phrase was a little too much). And even "Adventure Continues" (which was played at the fastest tempo I have heard at any live concert) some new feature--there was an extra boom-tzzzz to fill a moment of silence (not a fan) and a horn sustain was added during the first false ending, probably to stop people from clapping to early (also, the video montage for this sequence was he best I have seen).
The choir, which I believe hasn't been used at a JW Bowl concert since my ffirst concert in 2005, was amazing. "Dry Your Tears Afrika" was my favorite, and I thought that despite a moment of confusion that resulted in some muddled lyrics it was better than the City of Prague recording of the concert version.
Gil Shaman was fantastic. You could see how enthusiastic he was through his body language and facial expression. "Remembrances" was amazing.
The ET piece was fantastic. There was not a dry eye in sight. During the rehearsal there was a tech lady standing on the stage wiping her eyes.
A funny moment was when Williams played the Superman theme and everybody started waving a light saber, thinking it was from Superman. He saved most of the popular stuff for the encores, and it was great fun given the casual fandom of almost all of the audience. They were waiting throughout the entire concert for Star Wars, and JW waited to relieve them.
But for me, the greatest moment was...meeting John Williams. I'm not going to post any pictures (because I don't post any pics of myself on this board), nor will I reveal exactly how it happened because it was made clear to me that some people had let me slip through some cracks to meet the man, and it cannot be a regular occurrence. I wouldn't blame some of you for not believing me (and frankly I don't really care ). I will say that the maestro was truly gracious, and I feel incredibly blessed to have made this legendary encounter.

Now this is simply awesome:

Here you go Karelm:

Yeah, there's plenty of music that was omitted from the film, including those passages, but it's all there on the RCA (or Sony) release. Sorry to disappoint, but pretty much everything that was recorded for ESB is on that release! (What's fun is to sync it up with the film and see how it was supposed to line up. A lot of it is excellent music, but the filmmakers were right to omit it from the film.)

Even though it's only a cam video (a better than normal one), I'm still able to discern how brilliant a performance this is:

Near perfect.

The title of the thread should definitely be changed ASAP!!! It is misleading and heart attack inducing to JWFans!

Agreed, I nearly had a heart attack.

Should be performed by that other John Williams who plays the guitar

Try 'em out, they work now!