LSH

I don't want to launch pre-orders if the book isn't 100% finished, to avoid a long wait between the end of pre-orders and the shipping.
 
The book is 99.9% finished.
 
As I explained a few weeks ago on FSM, I'm waiting for authorization to publish images of recording sessions. I need the studio's permission. They've asked me to send them the chapter. I did so in September.
Last week I received my chapter with the requested changes. So things are moving ahead!
 
I hope to launch pre-orders in May.

Charlie Brooker, now of Black Mirror fame, used to write a fake tv listings magazine called TV Go Home (it’s online and very funny). According to my Facebook, 11 years ago, I went through a spate of doing my own. Sorry/not sorry for repeating them here. I don’t think these have dated too badly aside from the ones which are clearly references to much older shows. I’d definitely watch the Murder, She Wrote one. Why hasn’t anyone made that yet?!
 
High Concept: Brand new high concept sci-fi show in which an improbable event occurs, the reason or outcome of which never gets aired due to being cancelled midway through the first season as the audience quickly realise the writers haven't a fucking clue where the plot is going and stop watching.
 
Dexter, She Wrote: Prequel showing the early life of Jessica Fletcher during which serial killer Dexter Morgan shows a young Jessica Fletcher how to get away being a mass murderer and frame seemingly innocent people while visiting nieces or nephews.
 
Jeremy Kyle: Intervention! In a twist on the classic formula, Jeremy Kyle is put in front of an audience of mocking peasants as members of Kyle's own family are brought on to confront each of Kyle's own personal failings as the audience jeers at him like a monkey in a zoo. Followed by  Jeremy Kyle's Little Brother. Dara O'Briain asks Jeremy Kyle's little brother how Jeremy must be feeling about the vicious mocking he has just received while watching Jeremy Kyle weep uncontrollably in gloriously lo-def CCTV footage.
 
The Culture Show: Lauren Laverne compares the growth rates of Bacillus anthracis and cyanobacterium Synechococcus while discussing a new production of the Cherry Orchard starring a small tub of Activia.
 
Torchwood Late Night: Spin off from the unpopular sci-fi show. Episode 3/13 "The Shagging". Human dick machine Captain Jack Harkness must copulate with every human in the greater Cardiff area in order to prevent an alien invasion of some sort while the rest of the team go looking for a less conspicuous van to drive around in.
 
Whicker's World. Episode 3/6 The W(h)icker Man. This week, globe trotting documentary maker Alan Whicker visits a Scottish Island with surprising results.
 

Just got back. It was rather good!
 
Despite a full orchestra involved (slightly under-appreciated), the emphasis was fully on the soloists - all of whom were superb.
 
Highlights:
 
A brief but intense suite from The Rock - didn’t expect that to turn up but it was fun
 
A glorious - and very lengthy - suite from The Prince Of Egypt. This was utterly superb. Parts from the burning bush and chariot sequences, punctuated by some fantastic live vocals.
 
Gladiator - this was great due to the presence of Lisa Gerrard. The Gladiator Waltz, the wheat stuff… all covered
 
Lot’s of other enjoyable smatters. Bit drunk.
 

 
 

Just got back. It was rather good!
 
Despite a full orchestra involved (slightly under-appreciated), the emphasis was fully on the soloists - all of whom were superb.
 
Highlights:
 
A brief but intense suite from The Rock - didn’t expect that to turn up but it was fun
 
A glorious - and very lengthy - suite from The Prince Of Egypt. This was utterly superb. Parts from the burning bush and chariot sequences, punctuated by some fantastic live vocals.
 
Gladiator - this was great due to the presence of Lisa Gerrard. The Gladiator Waltz, the wheat stuff… all covered
 
Lot’s of other enjoyable smatters. Bit drunk.
 

 
 

Just got back. It was rather good!
 
Despite a full orchestra involved (slightly under-appreciated), the emphasis was fully on the soloists - all of whom were superb.
 
Highlights:
 
A brief but intense suite from The Rock - didn’t expect that to turn up but it was fun
 
A glorious - and very lengthy - suite from The Prince Of Egypt. This was utterly superb. Parts from the burning bush and chariot sequences, punctuated by some fantastic live vocals.
 
Gladiator - this was great due to the presence of Lisa Gerrard. The Gladiator Waltz, the wheat stuff… all covered
 
Lot’s of other enjoyable smatters. Bit drunk.
 

 
 

Avatar (James Horner) - Complete
 

 
Found an edit of the complete score prioritizing the film versions - the other bootlegs containing the sessions have many alternates, inserts, etc. I only swapped The Battle Continues and Quaritch Down for those in the sessions, because the film replace much of these two cues for tracked material from elsewhere.
 
Anyway, it's not in my top 5 Horners but still pretty good. I miss this guy so much  
 
Avatar: The Way of Water (Simon Franglen)
 

 
I admit I was too hard on this score when it came out. However, since then I've been slowly warming up to it and now I can confidently say: I really like it!
 
The main theme was what I liked the most on release, but now I actually enjoy the other stuff as well. The mystical material for the water Na'Vi (I forgot the name of the tribe, lol) and their integration with the ocean is lovely, and the action music, which I was too hard on it on release, now I find it impressive. I love how dark and apocalyptic tracks like Bad Parents, Knife Fight and World Upside Down are, and I loved the choir acting as a Pandoran harbiger of doom into the douchebag humans in Train Attack and Na'Vi Attack. It all becomes more impressive when it finishes with From Darkness to the Light, which is lovely.
 
Anyway, would I prefer Horner didn't enter that stupid plane in June 2015 and scored this movie? Sure. But this by no means is Franglen's fault, who did a pretty good work with a score that is as good as (if not even better than) Horner's for the first movie. I'm pretty sure his master is prowd of his padawan wherever he is.

The Flying Circus is jut an all-time great film cue

In an ideal world.

Not only there's a sequel for the Winnie the Pooh horror movie being released this year, they already announced a third part.
 

 
https://variety.com/2024/film/global/winnie-the-pooh-blood-and-honey-3-confirmed-1235954467/

Episode 9
 
Great finale. And this is without a doubt my favorite series of the year so far.
 
I'm not really sure what else to say about it.
I thought the prison camp attack was great, especially because it was so chaotic.
 
Then to see Buck in the cockpit again next to Rosie was fantastic. And to have Kenny on board for the run to drop the food was just so heartwarming.
 
The end with the planes taking off to go back to America was just as great. Amd I thought the shot of the cows in the field with a crashed plane beside was incredible!
 
What a series!!!

First listen of the expansion... and I'm having a whale of a time. This is excellent.

First listen of the expansion... and I'm having a whale of a time. This is excellent.

So it’s been a few decades…
 

 
…And if you remove some of the context, or baggage if you prefer, this is a fucking beautiful masterpiece all its own. 
 
I’ve not seen the film nor listened to the score in ages.  But I gave the film presentation of the 4CD set a listen.  At first, I wasn’t feeling it with the synth and the contemporary sound of the Gaelic stuff for the port sequences.  So I told myself to forget about Enya, and listen as though she never existed.   But then the score shifts into Rose territory, and I told myself to forget about the Celine Dion song which eclipsed everything during the original Titanic mania.  Then, with the action pieces, I felt more comfortable in familiar Horner territory. 
 
And then…
 
It was An Ocean of Memories which crystallized everything.  Goodness, that was beautiful.  And it gave the Port Themes a proper orchestral presence. And that’s when the synth choices earlier in the score made sense to me.  The flashback… it’s not real. It’s the past. The score’s synthetic nature is consistent with the digital technology necessary to recreate the Titanic in her glory.  What’s real is the memory. And the authenticity of orchestration with “real” instruments is, like the memory, eternal and more lasting, more tangible than the digital recreation.   An Ocean of Memories is SO… EARNED.  I teared up. 
 
I loved this listening with fresh perspective, and I can’t wait to dive into the bonus material. 

James really knocked it out of the park with this one. It’s my second favorite PP score after Hook.

I adore this movie.  I'll never forget going in blindly spoiler free after that wonderful Teaser with the factory building the T-800.  I had no idea Arnold would be the "good guy".  My eyes popped out and my jaw dropped several times.
 
If you watch it 4 times a year, try the 3D version on a projector.  It slaps.

David Arnold - Godzilla
 

 
Between this and Williams' The Lost World, monster music was kicking some serious ass in the late 90s. This one has everything I like in an Arnold score: massive, furious, complicated action music.
 
And the best part: it's FUN! It's so much fun! I miss when even the scores back in the day were entertaining before the "darkness and disturbingness" (who is the guilty one? I bet in Powell/Bourne and Zimmer/Nolan).
 
Nowadays, if it's a "serious" Godzilla movie it gets a sad and depressing score (G - 1) and if it's a dumb Godzilla movie it gets an equally dumb score (GvK). Sigh...

Wasn’t remotely interested in this but the announcement of Edwards as director has piqued my curiosity somewhat.
 
The great thing about Spielberg’s original is it is entirely shot from a human perspective; not a single shot of a dinosaur is filmed from higher than eye-level. Edwards, for the most part at least, obeyed this aesthetic in his Godzilla outing so I’m intrigued to see if he will continue that approach here. 
 
As for the music, I would really like to hear somebody else tackle this. I think I’d even prefer Desplat over Giacchino. 

While I prefer Casino Royale as a complete work, there is no question that this should be considered his best 007 score - simply for the reason that he proved himself so utterly for the job, and the legacy proves that.
 
All of his Bond scores have several singular superb moments in them and I place this score as a very close second. 
 
'White Knight' is not only my favourite Arnold Bond cue... it's also not only my favourite Arnold cue entire... it's one of my favourite cues of all time! (Hearing it played live at Birmingham Symphony Hall back in 2016 was one of my absolute captivating live music experiences to date). The tension build in the first third of this cue is fucking sublime. Those bass marimbas!
 
The expansion is fantastic by the way!

While I prefer Casino Royale as a complete work, there is no question that this should be considered his best 007 score - simply for the reason that he proved himself so utterly for the job, and the legacy proves that.
 
All of his Bond scores have several singular superb moments in them and I place this score as a very close second. 
 
'White Knight' is not only my favourite Arnold Bond cue... it's also not only my favourite Arnold cue entire... it's one of my favourite cues of all time! (Hearing it played live at Birmingham Symphony Hall back in 2016 was one of my absolute captivating live music experiences to date). The tension build in the first third of this cue is fucking sublime. Those bass marimbas!
 
The expansion is fantastic by the way!

While I prefer Casino Royale as a complete work, there is no question that this should be considered his best 007 score - simply for the reason that he proved himself so utterly for the job, and the legacy proves that.
 
All of his Bond scores have several singular superb moments in them and I place this score as a very close second. 
 
'White Knight' is not only my favourite Arnold Bond cue... it's also not only my favourite Arnold cue entire... it's one of my favourite cues of all time! (Hearing it played live at Birmingham Symphony Hall back in 2016 was one of my absolute captivating live music experiences to date). The tension build in the first third of this cue is fucking sublime. Those bass marimbas!
 
The expansion is fantastic by the way!

The company I work for has just given everyone a £150 voucher to use at Resorts World in Birmingham. This World Of Hans Zimmer thing is there in April so I just got myself and a friend a ticket for it. 
 
Best thing on the menu.

Christ, Thor made a funny.
 
 
First serious encounter with Goldsmith will most definitely have been The Mummy, though subconsciously he had been in my field of view for a couple of years prior (Mulan being the other obvious example).
 
As a 90s child I explored that era’s output first. The likes of The Edge, Total Recall, The Russia House, The 13th Warrior, etc were all discovered fairly easily.
 
Then the real depths of enlightenment began.

The company I work for has just given everyone a £150 voucher to use at Resorts World in Birmingham. This World Of Hans Zimmer thing is there in April so I just got myself and a friend a ticket for it. 
 
Best thing on the menu.