Bayesian

This movie looks SO GOOD!! I’m so completely stoked for this! 😄😄

Not gonna lie, this is an amazing way to start to tease a movie. It's utterly beguiling. I'm staring at this image with a big stupid grin on my face because we are now officially, publicly underway with this movie. And that means I get to enjoy one more spin with you all on the ever-so-fulfilling joyride that is the anticipation of a new JW score and a new Spielberg movie. We have been blessed with so much from these two men over the decades -- and they're still not done with us. How did we get to be so lucky??

OK, I finally caught myself up on this show. I love what Seehorn is doing with her character Carol, although I have to admit her stubborn/bitchy demeanor is getting a bit grating. I get that she's frustrated that she believes herself to be the only un-Joined person interested in turning things back the way they were, but she should have by this point understood that constantly pushing everyone away (like to the point where they won't even be in the same city as her) isn't likely the best way to help her figure out a solution. She knows they can't lie or hurt her, so she should be using that knowledge to get the hive to slip up and share information that helps her goal. (Like how she almost got some out of Zosia.) In this latest episode, I also have to admit having a hard time buying that this hive mind entity doesn't realize that plucking apples from a tree doesn't harm the tree in any way. It's a neat conceit that they can't intentionally take life, but if picking apples is considered "taking life" to them, then nothing is off the table. Washing one's hands kills bacteria--doesn't that count as taking life? Walking on the grass likely kills insects at some point, but we already know they do that. I mean, I get why this needed to be the case -- it gives us stakes and neat new philosophical angle to consider (is it worth it to have all of humanity cooperative and peaceful if it means a large proportion of it will eventually die because of it?). (Actually, now that I think about it, I guess I'm ok with the can't-pick-fruit bit because it justifies this new twist.) Anyway, great series! A 9/10 for me. p.s. I loved Diamante's LARPing at the start of ep. 6. It's as much a character study on him as it is a mild subversion of our viewer expectations. Here's a guy who recognizes that he can live out literally any fantasy he wants -- and does it. Carol may be the uptight heroine-of-sorts wanting to set things right, but it's Diamante who's behaving as we probably would expect most of us to, were we in that situation.

Hi everyone, I've attached here photos of the program and program notes. The story behind the Serenade is touching. I won't spoil it by trying to summarize it. The music itself is lovely. I'm not very good at describing music, but I will say it's appropriate for the mood it was written for and features some beautiful harmonies and several moments that sound very JW-in-sincere-mode to my ears. The work runs about 8:35 long and is very chamber-like. I wish I took a better look at the time, as I was focusing entirely on the music, but I estimate there were some 8 violins, 4-5 violas, 3-4 cellos, and 2 double basses, plus Jesse Clevenger on horn.

This is so surreal to read. Vallejo has a not-so-great reputation, being considered one of the worst cities in the Bay Area. (I live there, but near the outer edge where there are nicer parts -- and only because my wife and I got priced out of Contra Costa County in 2021.) The downtown district, home to the Empress Theater, is a derelict wasteland of shuttered small businesses and streets that desperately need repaving. I'm ASTONISHED that the city has an orchestra. We can barely manage to keep three or four dozen police officers on active duty for a city of 120,000 people across 30 square miles. (I'm told the city was in fine shape until the Mare Island Naval Shipyard got decommissioned in 1996, which lost the city its largest employer.) Anyway, I can't believe that not only is the Vallejo Symphony a thing, but that they're going to premiere a JW work! This is incredible! Naturally, I will be in attendance and already bought my ticket. I'll do my very best to discreetly record the new work (using the Voice Memos app) and bring it to you all here.

For some unexplainable reason, I love the fact that Spielberg uses words like ajar in his day-to-day life. What I'm not as much of a fan of is how he hasn't told us yet that JW is scoring his movie. The two of them made a blood oath (I'm presuming) that JW would score 30 of his movies. Just call him and tell him to hold up his end of the deal already!

I think the time has come for cautious optimism about a 50th anniversary special-edition-to-end-all-special editions special C&C edition of the SW score--if not the whole OT--in 2027. The 50th anniversary is simply too important a milestone to pass up for an IP as culturally important to the planet and to Hollywood moviemaking as Star Wars. Disney certainly knows this and won't pass up a moneymaking opportunity like this, which won't ever come around again. And because Sony and Disney have been so egregious about their old-wine-in-new-bottles approach to repackaging and selling us the same soundtracks over and over, there is zero chance that people won't raise a huge stink if the new soundtrack releases are anything short of a top-to-bottom redo project, working from first principles, with Matessino in charge. That kind of effort will take time and resources and I have no doubt people are working on it now, just as people are apparently working on restoring ANH to its original glory, as we can see above. They're just working under very strict NDAs, is my guess. May 2027 is 19 1/2 months away. That's not an awfully long way off, especially if you're feeling time slip by ever more quickly, as I have been lately. In this day and age, there seems to be a conspicuous general shortage of things to look forward to. For me, as well as likely millions of others, SW 50th anniversary is going to be one of the truly special things to look forward to.

The movie won't be in theaters until next summer and production wrapped 4 months ago, per @crumbs. That ought to mean a luxurious schedule would be a piece of cake. Locked cut is an open question, but if anyone should be able to get one on favorable terms, it'd surely be a director of Spielberg's stature and skill. Ergo, Williams WILL be scoring this movie -- period, end of story, end of discussion, full stop, merci au revoir!

The info we currently need: Whether JW has finally been confirmed to score Spielberg's UFO movie.

My feeling too. I’m guessing they’re saving the good stuff for the third trailer around Thanksgiving or early Dec. This trailer looks very derivative of the previous two installments. I personally hope to see more RDA in Cameron’s Pandora world-building in F&A. As neat as the native Pandoran flora and fauna are, I’m more fascinated by the way Cameron and his team portray the human invaders, er, expatriates and their incredibly complicated yet fragile technology.

Has it already almost been three years since the WGA/SAG strikes? DGA decided not to strike then, if I recall. Time sure flies. The filmmaking industry is hardly in any shape to endure yet more discord. I can't imagine how these next talks are going to go.

Where are you located? I just pre-ordered this on Amazon and it won't release until Nov 7!

I wasn't sure I was ready to triple-dip on this, but I am glad I did. This is a PHENOMENAL release and package and assuredly the last word that needs to be said on the soundtrack to the movie that kicked off the Hollywood machine that would see us to the present day. In album production, art design, liner notes, photography... every last detail is top-rate. By now, it's appalling that Matessino hasn't won Grammys for his work. Fuck, put him up for the Pulitzer at this point.

OK, Tan Dun's Symphony 1997 just sprang to mind. I've never heard it but it's called a symphony and '97 came well after WWII. No idea if it was well-received or sold a lot of copies, but the late 90s was a good time to sell CDs, so it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people bought it... so that's my final guess!

Bernstein! @bruce marshall, is it one of Bernstein's three symphonies?? He's the only postwar composer I can think of whose popularity, renown and talent might have enabled him to sell a lot of albums and earn a lot of praise.