pixie_twinkle

Aaaaaaaand ordered.

It all looks very American again. More silly pandering to the US market with Amy inanely firing her gun accidentally and saying "oops didn't mean to do that" in a hilarious way! Ha ha ha. Doctor Who is at its best when the quirkiness and eccentricity of the style and characters is grounded in its British roots, and not in such a galling stereotype of the Brits so obviously aimed at a US market. It all seems very trite and "zany" in a way that just doesn't seem to have much in common with the show's British heritage. I was worried about Torchwood: Miracle Day being too American, and it turns out my fears were well founded. I really hope Dr Who gets back to its British roots before it's too late. On the positive side, my DVD of The Daemons just arrived!

Got the Blu Ray. Waiting for the right moment to watch it.

I've never seen any Kurosawa films except for "Dreams". I really hope to remedy this soon. I have Ran on Blu Ray waiting for the appropriate moment to watch it. Having said that, I've never seen The Magnificent Seven either, which is why I just bought the Blu Ray.

The point is that music snobs with an inferiority complex get to have their hilarious "in-joke" at the expense of a rich and famous musician who probably doesn't give a crap anyway, while conveniently ignoring the fact that almost every composer takes musical themes from other composers at some point. About six years ago I had the very great pleasure of meeting one of the most respected living concert composers, George Crumb, when he visited Kent State University. When discussing his piece for two pianos and percussion "Makrokosmos 3: Music for a Summer Evening", he was keen to point out the various chords, voicings, and melodies he'd taken from Mahler and Debussy. "When using the music of other composers," he said, "don't borrow, steal!" The point is that he used the music in a highly effective and original way, and in the context of his own music. For the most part, that's what John Williams does too. The difference with John Williams is that, given the huge time constraints of writing a 1-2 hour film score, he doesn't always get to hide the stolen passages very well. The most obvious one might be the score from The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, which contains an almost note-for-note reworking of Copland's "Hoe Down" from "Rodeo". Williams had only a week or two to compose the whole orchestral score, and that's what you get! What he achieved in such a short time was incredible. He literally wasn't given the time to be wholly original and so he did the only realistic thing he could in such a short time. I'd like to see those music snobs achieve a fraction of what Johnny did under such pressure. Besides, the "Hoe Down" parody is actually very clever.

John Williams, among others

NO I'M NOT! (Puts up fists)

You guys are all delusional if you deny that John Williams stole ideas from other pieces. I adore the music of JW, but there are many times he has blatantly ripped off other pieces. The comparison video posted above is a pretty accurate depiction of a handful of those. I'm surprised at some of the ones that Weren't included to be honest. Love Theme from Superman/Strauss Death and Transfiguration for instance. Johnny ripped off some famous classical pieces. Admit it! It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Many composers did the same. We don't have to get all defensive or blinkered about it. The only reason people make such a stink about John Williams doing it is that he's richer, more successful, and more famous than almost any other living composer. That makes him an easy target. Yes, he blatantly stole from other composers. Hey, at least he did it well! Moving on...

That trailer was horrible. And I'm not talking about the picture quality.

Not sleeping, only dead.

I wonder if the powers that be have decided whether to go ahead with the sequel to Tintin or not. I really hope they do.

The conducter walked out onto the stage to deafening applause. After bowing to the audience, he turned to the orchestra. Silence fell. Just as he was about to raise his arms to begin, he noticed the principle violist sobbing, quietly. The conducter rather self-consciously bent over the podium to the violist and whispered "What's the problem?" The violist looked up at him in dismay and answered "The principle cellist just detuned one of my strings!" His voice rising in frustration, the conductor harshly whispered "Well why don't you just tune it again, quickly!" The violist burst into floods of tears and wailed "He won't tell me which one!!!"

CDs are 16bit/44.1k actually... Quite the opposite I reckon. Unfortunately most "normal" people will probably be annoyed the files are so large, and complain that they can't fit as many tracks on their iPods!

Shame about her silly and poorly-written departure episode.

Do we know how many copies of Hook they're making yet?

The Concorde Hook boot sounds pretty poor though. I haven't played it since I first got it about 13 years ago, but I remember from the very first minute thinking that the bass drum was distorting horribly in the prologue, and then noticing every distorted peak from then on. Poorly compressed, perhaps?

Me too. It sets the whole nostalgic US suburbia scene perfectly. I actually bought my first Grusin album AFTER hearing Banning Back Home, just to find out where Williams' inspiration came from.

I'm on a classic westerns kick thanks to some great WalMart deals. Picked up a 3-disc set of The Searchers, The Wild Bunch, and How the West Was Won for 15 bucks. Watched the first two and they both look great. I also picked up The Magnificent Seven/Return of the Magnificent Seven for 15 bucks. Five blu ray westerns for 30 dollars total!

I'm only really interested in new/unreleased music, so I bought Nightwatch/Killer by Night, Expanded 1941, and Midway. I didn't buy any of the compilations or the Harp concerto, mainly because I'm holding out for a CD release. I'm not a big fan of digital downloads unless they're uncompressed and come with artwork and liner notes. They may be the future, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

MORE American Dr Who? God I miss RTD. You know, Pertwee said it best. He said that Dr Who is at its best when it is set in suburbia. There's nothing more frightening than finding a Yeti sitting on your loo in Tooting Bec, he said. Let's get away from this galling "bigger and bigger" attitude of recent seasons, and focus more on smaller, scarier stories. Why do the producers feel the need to "blow our minds" with each episode? I'd rather watch something smaller, more intimate, and mainly more scary! I still think the Eccleston season is my favourite of the new version of Dr Who, primarily because (apart from Eccleston being bloody brilliant!) the stories were better paced, and mostly set in believable and/or more mundane and familiar surroundings.

To me "treasured" means that you have a personal reason for loving that particular record or CD. Very few of the items in my list would make my list of "favourite" records/CDs, if I was just to go on the strength of the music itself. Treasured means something quite different. In the case of my choices, I loved (and still love) the music, but most importantly they have a nostalgic place in my heart because each one in turn helped me to grow as a music lover. The fact that even after 35 plus years I can still remember when (and from who) I received each record, shows how much they meant to me back then, and how much they still mean to me now.

Not sure why, but the stratospheric violins' rising-falling section makes me think of Janacek. The brass fanfare at the start is wonderful too. I love both entre'acts, and may put both back to back on my own score CD. I'd start with the original (more sombre and fitting after the downbeat end to part one of the film/score), and launch straight into the alternate as a good set-up for the upbeat chariot music at the start of part two.

The alternate Entre'acte on disc 4 is amazing! I can't believe this piece was never used in the film. Exciting and exhilarating music, I've had it running around in my head for the last 3 days!

His artwork was a huge part of my childhood. Fantastic and hugely imaginative. RIP Ralph McQuarrie.

Ok, that makes sense. I'm glad to have the complete version of course. I'll probably make my own version and bring the edited version into the OST and keep the full version on the extras disc.