Bayesian

Amazon US customers aren’t going to see their copies shipped until mid-May, I believe, which makes me think our copies will be numbered in the 1,XXX range. (Maybe even the 2,XXX range?)

Well, there’s Superman. Unless you mean “cash-grabby, overwrought universe-driven superhero” genre.

I know! I really dislike the idea of having to double dip on this just to get the CDs (especially when it seems so avoidable, since CDs are coming eventually). But ultimately this is an album that can justify the extra spend.

I completely agree; the mix sounds absolutely marvelous. And the playing is utterly precise; the brass have incredible intonation. The Force Awakens suite recorded here, in particular, renewed my appreciation for the quality of themes JW wrote for the sequel trilogy. They all already sound completely timeless, on a par with all the warhorses in his catalog, and they've only been around for 6 years. I know we've already talked elsewhere about how truly incredible Rey's Theme and the Jedi Steps are, but in this recording you can tell that JW didn't just hit a home run here, he bashed that ball onto the fucking freeway. Other composers can only wish they could write like this.

Oh my yes. I’ll never understand people’s fascination for the British royal family. Maybe with the exception of the queen herself, everyone is undistinguished, mediocre, or, worse, Prince Andrew. That an entire country is supposed to worship these leeches staggers the mind. (Apologies to the monarchists reading this.)

I began feeling that way about classical discs a few years ago. Part of me wanted to hold onto the idea of “buy it now, you’ll be happy you did 20 years from now,” but I couldn’t justify the costs. I rarely buy any new classical now. But If it’s JW and DE, I will get it, even if not right away.

Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I should have said every release from a given composer. Those lists would surely be more consistent, name-wise.

I guess what I'm really asking is, for each new release from La-La Land or Intrada or Quartet or what-have-you, if you could look at a list of the first thousand people who purchased it, you'd likely see the same names appear over and over. Who are these people? How many of them are involved in the film industry, for example? Or are musicians? Or politicians? Or Fortune 500 C-suite executives? Or college-educated? Or female? Or eBay sellers looking to create (then capitalize on) market scarcity? Certainly, most of those attributes we'd never know just from looking at names and addresses, but it would be neat to peek at such lists. "Oh look, here's Stephen King. And Elon Musk! And the guy who runs the Tour de France. And over here is the chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill... who knew they were all such Williams fans?"

All right, here's a stumper. (Well, hopefully not, because I hope someone knows the answer). What percussion instruments are used to make the classic "running away" cartoon sound (including that clangy offbeat sound)?

Waterworld is one of my favorite movies ever and a high water mark (pun intended) for action filmmaking using real sets. They just don’t make them like that anymore. (It’s also got several funny throwaway moments I find surprisingly endearing). The score, of course, is a ‘90s classic.

Yup. I wonder, isn’t it too soon to call Gunn a “horribly beautiful mind,” whatever that’s supposed to mean? Isn’t his rep built mostly on Vol 1? What was horrible or beautiful about that movie?

I’m not an economist, but my understanding is that a dollar available today is worth more than a dollar promised tomorrow. The people who buy soundtrack expansions probably skew older than the rest of the population and for sure the people for whom Indy and OT Star Wars form a strong nostalgic connection are older than the rest of the population. And with nostalgia running huge in this generally shitty era, a smart company should recognize there is no better time than now to sell older people things that reminds them of better days—things like these expanded soundtracks. Honestly, what the fuck is keeping these scores from being expanded? Spite? Total ignorance of the content they have stored in some stupid vault in Burbank or wherever? Indifference? If it’s not that, then what better time are they waiting for? Disney, if you’re reading this, pull the damn trigger already. The stars are aligned to get the job done right, and they ain’t staying aligned forever. Charge whatever you want for these—you know we will pay it. We’ll skip our fucking rent if we need to, but we’ll pay it, and if you don’t know that, you’re more clueless than we feared. Otherwise, we’re going to have to start a Twitter campaign or something to shame you into doing this, since it’s probably the only thing you’ll respond to.

I remember being really pumped for Ep. I too, but not quite to the same level. I’d gotten the soundtrack about two weeks before the movie opened (back when they did that sort of thing) and remember trying to work out the story from the track list. I never realized or appreciated, though, what it meant to have a new LSO performed opening crawl. I wasn’t as JW- or film music-obsessed back then. I do remember, though, being utterly infatuated with the flag parade and DOTF, and not caring for Anakin’s theme or much else of the soundtrack [hangs head in shame]. Of course, I got older and wiser and came to recognize the utter lunacy of my first opinions on the rest of that score.😊

I knew there’d be at least one here to pull the lever for that third option of mine.

Today I had this weird itch to watch the official trailer for Star Wars The Force Awakens again. Revisiting it after a couple years or more, I realized that it's more than likely that I will never again obsessively anticipate something in my life as much as I did that movie. (Properly expanded SW CDs don't count, since none of knows if that's ever actually going to be thing. A trailer saying "This Christmas," on the other hand... you know that shit is coming. Totally different experience.) God, I must have watched that trailer six or seven dozen times that fall. When it dropped, I remember a bunch of us were at a bar after kickball and I dragged four of my friends out into my car so I could play the trailer for them on my phone thru the car speakers--and that was after already watching the thing over and over on my own. And I remember all the time I spent here with you guys in 2015 obsessing about the music (well, more like just following along while you all deconstructed every chord and instrument). Those were halcyon days, my friends... Anyone else feel like that movie was the last major thing you'll ever anticipate so hotly in your life? Or maybe some other film or other creative IP? Or do you think it's ridiculous that anyone could look forward to a movie that much?

I never ever would have believed it was possible to rap about statistics, and yet here we are. Thanks for sharing this! For what’s it’s worth, the songwriter(s) did a pretty damn good job covering the Bayesian basics. One should always be ready to update their beliefs/expectations as new, relevant evidence comes to light!

This is likely the closest we’ll ever get to a JW piano concerto! Really excited for this!

I idly notice that amazon hasn't listed a CD version for pre-order, just the digital album. I'm sure that a CD is coming, of course. Man, all this waiting for the floodgates to open on new JW albums this year is starting to wear me out! And all we've had so far to preoccupy us is a noisy 4-hr Justice League score. Lousy covid!

The wife and I started watching Resident Alien on syfy. I’m really liking this series. It’s mostly a comedy, but looks like it will develop into something fairly seriocomic. (I’m only 2 1/2 episodes in.) Alan Tudyk is well cast as a character (in this case, an alien that can morph into human shape) that is equal (and amusing) parts self-important and clueless/thin-skinned covert agent sent to destroy all humans. The other main characters (actors’ names escape me) are pretty good too, especially the sheriff and mayor of the small, made-up Colorado town where the show is set.

Wonderful work to reduce this score, @s081186! My birthday isn’t until next month, but I’ve lately been unable to get this music out of my head. What an incontrovertibly brilliant piece! (Not gonna go so far as to say it’s on par with what Beethoven did with Diabelli’s waltz, but who knows, maybe it is.) I wish I knew the trumpet so I could play those amazing licks from 4:34 on. And that syncopated brass hit at 4:46! The whole damn piece is a candy store for the ear. 🥳

It can be hard to look at something so familiar with fresh eyes, but I feel I might have done that with the throne room scene that ends Star Wars. Most action/adventure movies end with the protagonists winning, and often we'll get a minute or so of a closure scene, but has there ever been a movie other than Star Wars that ends with nearly two minutes of ceremony -- where not a word is spoken, there's nothing but music playing, and spectacle is minimal? On paper, it sounds as boring as hell, like watching an olympics medal ceremony. And yet the way Lucas pulled it off is wonderful. Its purity of message (something like, "good prevailing over evil deserves to be celebrated") is completely unburdened by its aw-shucks earnestness (the acting seems basically impromptu but is completely endearing). And, again, all without a single word, without a single moment of self-importance. Of course, the music is indispensable. JW's masterstroke was to start off with a fanfare but then shift to a muscular version of the force theme, which of course is not celebratory in the least. The fanfare is a perfect tee-up for celebration; it primes us for a triumphant last scene. But then JW goes into muscular force theme mode here for a full 30 sec to reminds us that our heroes went through some shit to get to this moment. Then we go into a musical B-section where we see the actors smile and chuckle at each other in outtake-looking footage (again, completely endearing), which then morphs into the final triumphant fanfare, coinciding with the first and only "hero" shots and only applause of the whole scene. So down-to-earth, so self-effacing, so simple... and so absolutely perfect.

His review is not quite as sycophantic as one might expect for someone giving a glowing review, and that’s refreshing. But he lost all credibility when he said JXL’s score was not only brilliant but almost as good as BvS. Sorry pal, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, I really did.

I love that headline! Best laugh I had all day!😂

I just wanna know when The French Dispatch (and its soundtrack) is coming out.

This. So very this. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Because this is exactly what the problem is, isn’t it? Zimmer is a talented self-taught musician who managed to parlay said talent into a one-man industry that reshaped the Hollywood sound in his image. But as with many self-taught talents, some time ago he either reached his creative limits without realizing it or he embraced those limits and redirected his efforts toward making as much hay as he can from his moderately-above-mediocre product. I’m no psychologist, but Zimmer’s oft-repeated statements of having put in his time, paid his dues, slaved over his work for years, etc. sound like pleas to us to give his (or his protégés’) work the highest possible respect almost solely on the basis of the amount of hard work: “I worked really hard on this, so you really should give it the respect you’d give JW or John Barry or Morricone.” Maybe there’s a hint of imposter syndrome lurking beneath those comments, I dunno. I absolutely respect hard work. But a person can work really really hard at something and never make a truly great product. I have no musical training, but if I tried really hard for a couple years, I bet I could eventually write something pleasing to the ear, maybe even accidentally stumble across techniques that trained composers would have been taught on day 1. But I wouldn't ever try to tell the world to respect my music simply because I worked at it really hard.