I don't know that you'll remember, or want to remember, but I'm writing a new soundtrack to our movie[^]. As much as I'd love to write something as pretentiously over the top as a 'Lord of the Rings' style soundtrack I very much doubt I have the talent or the time, and certainly not the experience.
I've opted for something mainly electronic - lots of wierd synthy sounds, but with plans to use an orchestra where I think it'll be appropriate. There's an amazing amount of good free stuff out there if you know the terms to use and how to make Google sit up and sing.
When we did the first version of the movie soundtrack, 19 years ago, it was all quite different. There probably were computers out there capable of rendering a soundtrack but methinks they were way out of our price range. We did it the hard way, sifting through hundreds of commercial movie soundtrack libraries (there is, or at least was, an entire industry in writing 30 second and shorter tunes in particular styles), listening to each piece and deciding if it might fit whatever part of the movie we were editing on the day. We'd argue, the three of us, over this piece versus that, and we'd speed it up or slow it down a little to try and make the music fit the cues.
I think we did a pretty good job. Heino thinks we edited the video to fit the sound but that doesn't agree with my memory of the process. As I recall it, we did video first and then found music to fit. On the other hand, we *did* edit video to a rhythm to help it fit with the music we hadn't yet found.
Nearly twenty years later I'm glad it was cut that way; it makes it somewhat easier to fit a completely new soundtrack to the old video. The bank robbery at the opening is still giving me hell; I wrote the first half minute or so (for a 2 and a half minute scene without dialogue) using an insistent beat and heavily overdriven bass guitars and sent it off to Heino and Gary to have a listen. They liked what they heard. My problem is that one can only do 'duh duh duh duh duh duh' accompanied by 'whaaaaaaaaangggg' for so long - two and a half minutes is about twice too long! How to maintain both the tension and the listeners interest?
But we'll get there. I'm having a ball. This is almost completely new to me - apart from Mike Oldfield and Pet Shop Boys I haven't listened to electronic music in over thirty years.
I understand that Heino was somewhat nervous when he sat down to listen to that first thirty seconds of music; was it going to be Bruckner? I suspect he was surprised!
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Ancient History
Whilst flipping through the fortnights movie lineup on TCM the other night I couldn't help noticing they're running Help![^] (and have a few times recently). Not really my cup of tea; it was made before the Beatles became an interesting group. Nonetheless, toying with the idea of recording it if only so I could say I gave it a try, I checked the 'Guide' synopsis. Quite a shock! For it read thusly 'John, Paul, George and Ringo (The Beatles)...' and so on.
I suppose it's true there's at least one generation for whom the recitation of those four names does not instantly conjure up the word 'Beatles'. Possibly two.
A couple of years ago Sonya and I were on our way to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving weekend. We happened to catch up with Morgan and Andrew, with their father, at a MacDonalds on the way. Yes, I hang my head in shame, I ordered Maccas. I do about once a year; it serves to remind me how bad food substitutes can really be. Anyway, a Beatles song was being piped into the 'restaurant' and I asked Andrew if he knew it. 'Sure' he replied, 'it's that song from Ferris Buellers day off.'.
Uh huh. I really am getting old!
I suppose it's true there's at least one generation for whom the recitation of those four names does not instantly conjure up the word 'Beatles'. Possibly two.
A couple of years ago Sonya and I were on our way to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving weekend. We happened to catch up with Morgan and Andrew, with their father, at a MacDonalds on the way. Yes, I hang my head in shame, I ordered Maccas. I do about once a year; it serves to remind me how bad food substitutes can really be. Anyway, a Beatles song was being piped into the 'restaurant' and I asked Andrew if he knew it. 'Sure' he replied, 'it's that song from Ferris Buellers day off.'.
Uh huh. I really am getting old!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Metal
It's early days yet and it's hard to know if a new found enthusiasm for heavy metal music will last. Nonetheless, I've found myself alternating between symphonies and metal the last few days.
It all began when Christian Graus, over on Codeproject[^], mentioned 'The Glorious Burden' by Iced Earth. I can't remember, even though it was only a few days ago, what it was about his post that piqued interest but I checked and found it available on Rhapsody. Gave it a listen and it's now on my music player. Ditto for another recommendation; 'Nostradamus', by Judas Priest.
It feels like that last band has been around for nearly as long as the Stones; I certainly remember hearing the name in the very early 70's though I have no memory whatsoever of what they did at that time.
As for why I like it? I think it's the layered complexity. Certainly much of the thematic material is pretty banal but one could say that of most music; the power is in the treatment. And whilst the words might seem silly (indeed I thought so at first hearing) it's not much of a leap from there to the commonplace silliness of such lines from Bergs 'Wozzeck'[^] as 'Langsam, Wozzeck, Langsam'. Sounds very profound in a foreign language but in english it means 'Slower, Wozzeck, Slower', sung by the captain as Wozzeck gives him a shave! Now there's profound soap opera for you!
In other words, I've learned not to go to music for profundity in poesy.
Enough armchair amateur analysis! I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoy Bruckner.
It all began when Christian Graus, over on Codeproject[^], mentioned 'The Glorious Burden' by Iced Earth. I can't remember, even though it was only a few days ago, what it was about his post that piqued interest but I checked and found it available on Rhapsody. Gave it a listen and it's now on my music player. Ditto for another recommendation; 'Nostradamus', by Judas Priest.
It feels like that last band has been around for nearly as long as the Stones; I certainly remember hearing the name in the very early 70's though I have no memory whatsoever of what they did at that time.
As for why I like it? I think it's the layered complexity. Certainly much of the thematic material is pretty banal but one could say that of most music; the power is in the treatment. And whilst the words might seem silly (indeed I thought so at first hearing) it's not much of a leap from there to the commonplace silliness of such lines from Bergs 'Wozzeck'[^] as 'Langsam, Wozzeck, Langsam'. Sounds very profound in a foreign language but in english it means 'Slower, Wozzeck, Slower', sung by the captain as Wozzeck gives him a shave! Now there's profound soap opera for you!
In other words, I've learned not to go to music for profundity in poesy.
Enough armchair amateur analysis! I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoy Bruckner.
Friday, August 15, 2008
How annoying!
Morgan's not living here anymore. Oh sure, she comes for a single night, makes a lot of noise and disappears again. She's been playing games, promising at the start of the week that she'll go into drug rehab at the end of the week and, of course, not going into drug rehab at the end of the week. To my amazement Mom has finally got it; she's doing her daughter no favours by putting up with this level of bullshit.
Thus to Morgan only staying sporadically, when she can't persuade some other schmuck to put her up. Yes, it's a delicate balance here; how far can one rub her face in it without pushing her over the edge. This is where my social darwinism comes in; I can't help feeling that if she does go over the edge it can only improve the gene pool. Not that I actually want her to go over the edge but I'm damned if I'll go on providing a roof if all she can do is drug herself.
However, just because Morgan is persona non grata with the family right now is no reason why Ryan, her infant, should have to pursue a nomadic lifestyle along with her. He gets to stay here. Thus to this morning. As I sipped the wake up coffee Sonya plonked him down in front of the TV and tuned to some kids program.
I looked up and said 'what the?'. For there, rendered in what sounded for all the world like a Yamaha DX7 synthesiser, was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Not a bad rendition as it happened although totally electronic.
'It's an educational program' said my wife. Uh huh, so, in order to get the little bastards to listen, they feel they have to 'modernise' the sound? Perhaps the fees for an orchestral performance recording were too high? If so, given the number of low end recordings around, I pity the poor bastard they did hire to 'modernise' the sound. He must have been paid less than minimum wage.
Well, that's my snobbishness in regard to classical music exposed for all the world to see. Like I needed to say that! Methinks you already guessed it was there. But if you really and truly want to educate em perhaps the original orchestration might be a place to start from?
But what really annoyed me was how they'd let the music run for four seconds, approach an interesting chord transition and then just drop it. I really wanted to hear how the 'modernised' performance would treat it.
Thus to Morgan only staying sporadically, when she can't persuade some other schmuck to put her up. Yes, it's a delicate balance here; how far can one rub her face in it without pushing her over the edge. This is where my social darwinism comes in; I can't help feeling that if she does go over the edge it can only improve the gene pool. Not that I actually want her to go over the edge but I'm damned if I'll go on providing a roof if all she can do is drug herself.
However, just because Morgan is persona non grata with the family right now is no reason why Ryan, her infant, should have to pursue a nomadic lifestyle along with her. He gets to stay here. Thus to this morning. As I sipped the wake up coffee Sonya plonked him down in front of the TV and tuned to some kids program.
I looked up and said 'what the?'. For there, rendered in what sounded for all the world like a Yamaha DX7 synthesiser, was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Not a bad rendition as it happened although totally electronic.
'It's an educational program' said my wife. Uh huh, so, in order to get the little bastards to listen, they feel they have to 'modernise' the sound? Perhaps the fees for an orchestral performance recording were too high? If so, given the number of low end recordings around, I pity the poor bastard they did hire to 'modernise' the sound. He must have been paid less than minimum wage.
Well, that's my snobbishness in regard to classical music exposed for all the world to see. Like I needed to say that! Methinks you already guessed it was there. But if you really and truly want to educate em perhaps the original orchestration might be a place to start from?
But what really annoyed me was how they'd let the music run for four seconds, approach an interesting chord transition and then just drop it. I really wanted to hear how the 'modernised' performance would treat it.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Van Goghurt
Yes, you read that title right. Van Goghurt.
That's my best stab at how it's spelled. There I was the other day innocently driving to work and enduring what passes for drive time radio here when on comes an advertisement for Van Goghurt, followed by mention of Sugar Plum cookies. These are, apparently, products targetted at thoughtful parents who want their children to grow up with an appreciation of the arts. There's even mention of Tchaikovsky! Want to guess the ratio of sugar to plums in those cookies?
Doubtless an ad campaign thought up by someone who still believes that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach! And if that's true then lets feed the next generation on yoghurt artfully disguised as Van Goghurt - who knows, they might make the mental connection!
I can't help feeling that if you really really really wanted your kids to grow up with an appreciation of 'the arts' perhaps a better way might be to actually live it yourself and show by example. But that's just me.
I can see it now; one of the little bastards actually develops an interest in Van Gogh and discovers the depths of his parents ignorance of the subject; what a shock!
No, what we have here is a prime example of snobbery. 'I don't want to listen to Beethoven but you should' is what it boils down to. That's exactly what the advertisers are trying to tap into. 'Everyone knows' that 'Art is good' and if I feed my kids Van Goghurt I can subscribe to the notion without actually having to put in the effort to learn how to understand something that runs longer than three minutes.
Having said all that, have I made any effort to 'educate' Andrew or Morgan in classical music? Heck no! Enough that they know I enjoy it. They can see me spending hours, headphones on, listening, following scores, writing my own. If they want to know more they can ask.
One thing I've always stuck to; when either of them plays their own music I *never* criticise even if I find rap tedious. Their music is their music[^] whatever I might think of it.
That's my best stab at how it's spelled. There I was the other day innocently driving to work and enduring what passes for drive time radio here when on comes an advertisement for Van Goghurt, followed by mention of Sugar Plum cookies. These are, apparently, products targetted at thoughtful parents who want their children to grow up with an appreciation of the arts. There's even mention of Tchaikovsky! Want to guess the ratio of sugar to plums in those cookies?
Doubtless an ad campaign thought up by someone who still believes that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach! And if that's true then lets feed the next generation on yoghurt artfully disguised as Van Goghurt - who knows, they might make the mental connection!
I can't help feeling that if you really really really wanted your kids to grow up with an appreciation of 'the arts' perhaps a better way might be to actually live it yourself and show by example. But that's just me.
I can see it now; one of the little bastards actually develops an interest in Van Gogh and discovers the depths of his parents ignorance of the subject; what a shock!
No, what we have here is a prime example of snobbery. 'I don't want to listen to Beethoven but you should' is what it boils down to. That's exactly what the advertisers are trying to tap into. 'Everyone knows' that 'Art is good' and if I feed my kids Van Goghurt I can subscribe to the notion without actually having to put in the effort to learn how to understand something that runs longer than three minutes.
Having said all that, have I made any effort to 'educate' Andrew or Morgan in classical music? Heck no! Enough that they know I enjoy it. They can see me spending hours, headphones on, listening, following scores, writing my own. If they want to know more they can ask.
One thing I've always stuck to; when either of them plays their own music I *never* criticise even if I find rap tedious. Their music is their music[^] whatever I might think of it.
Monday, August 04, 2008
A minor detail
Last night I watched Billion Dollar Brain[^]. Not a great movie but not a bad one either. I have to admit I'm a sucker for a Michael Caine movie, particularly his earlier work and, having noticed in 'the guide' that this movie was directed by Ken Russell that was it; decision made.
Ken Russell is well known for his musical films, starting in the 60's with biographies of composers of the Romantic and Post Romantic era, people such as Elgar, Bax and Delius. I haven't managed to catch most of those earlier works; they just don't seem to be shown any more and perhaps no longer exist. The BBC, for whom most of these earlier films were made, seemed to make a practice of destroying material in the early 70's.
Just as well, then, that Ken made his transition to 'real' film at the end of the 60's; thus his 'versions' of the life of Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt; not forgetting Tommy! I'll be the first to admit that The Music Lovers[^] is probably far more fantasy than fact but I don't let that minor detail get in the way of enjoying a visual and musical feast. Such a pity it's not available on DVD and I haven't managed to see it in 20 years!
In Mahler[^] he really went all out; images of Nazis goosestepping on Gustavs coffin anyone? Brunhilde feeding Gustav pork after he slays the dragon and following it with a glass of milk! Bad taste from the decade of bad taste. I do have that one on DVD.
I may not recognise the music of some minor artist of the 1980s when it crops up but the moment they play three bars of a major composers symphony I know it! Thus to the scene in Billion Dollar Brain where Harry Palmer (Caine) is being cleaned up before being led into the concert. Masterful piece of misdirection there; the scene has all the indicators that he's about to be tortured. Come to think of it, many folk might consider being dragged into a Symphony Concert as torture!
Colonel Stok comes into view, a tear running down his cheek as the symphony crashes to a close. He imparts the information that Shostakovich wrote the symphony in Leningrad in 1941 during the siege. In other words, it's supposed to be the 7th Symphony.
Uh huh. The music we actually hear at this point is the end of the 11th Symphony, written in 1957.
Just a minor detail but one that surprised me given Ken Russell's pedigree.
Ken Russell is well known for his musical films, starting in the 60's with biographies of composers of the Romantic and Post Romantic era, people such as Elgar, Bax and Delius. I haven't managed to catch most of those earlier works; they just don't seem to be shown any more and perhaps no longer exist. The BBC, for whom most of these earlier films were made, seemed to make a practice of destroying material in the early 70's.
Just as well, then, that Ken made his transition to 'real' film at the end of the 60's; thus his 'versions' of the life of Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt; not forgetting Tommy! I'll be the first to admit that The Music Lovers[^] is probably far more fantasy than fact but I don't let that minor detail get in the way of enjoying a visual and musical feast. Such a pity it's not available on DVD and I haven't managed to see it in 20 years!
In Mahler[^] he really went all out; images of Nazis goosestepping on Gustavs coffin anyone? Brunhilde feeding Gustav pork after he slays the dragon and following it with a glass of milk! Bad taste from the decade of bad taste. I do have that one on DVD.
I may not recognise the music of some minor artist of the 1980s when it crops up but the moment they play three bars of a major composers symphony I know it! Thus to the scene in Billion Dollar Brain where Harry Palmer (Caine) is being cleaned up before being led into the concert. Masterful piece of misdirection there; the scene has all the indicators that he's about to be tortured. Come to think of it, many folk might consider being dragged into a Symphony Concert as torture!
Colonel Stok comes into view, a tear running down his cheek as the symphony crashes to a close. He imparts the information that Shostakovich wrote the symphony in Leningrad in 1941 during the siege. In other words, it's supposed to be the 7th Symphony.
Uh huh. The music we actually hear at this point is the end of the 11th Symphony, written in 1957.
Just a minor detail but one that surprised me given Ken Russell's pedigree.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Updated
Over there ---->
Second and third movements - still not complete. Lest you think the second is going to finish there, it ain't. It's going to wander back toward the opening ideas and then lead into the third movement.
Or another alternative I'm toying with - swap second and third movements. Lemme think about it!
Second and third movements - still not complete. Lest you think the second is going to finish there, it ain't. It's going to wander back toward the opening ideas and then lead into the third movement.
Or another alternative I'm toying with - swap second and third movements. Lemme think about it!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
As if you needed proof
that I'm an egotistical bastard. I've just added some links over there ----> where you can listen to the symphony I'm still working on. So far only the first movement is anywhere near complete and even it's subject to change as I get better at using the software. Already, if you compare the first movement linked to with the original posting I did back in May[^] you'll notice differences. (The original is still there). I wasn't really happy with the cymbal clash but I was damned if I could find a way to make it longer (MIDI treats percussion tracks differently). Would you believe I had to adjust the number of clocks?
How strange to speak of software in relation to a symphony but, considering that I'm a talentless git, it's the only way I'm going to get to hear my music. I was extremely lucky in 1974 to hear a real orchestra play a little something[^] I wrote; it was execrable music but a magic moment for me.
You might notice that in the linked blog entry I talk of Symphonies 1, 2 and 3, written all those years ago. So is the music linked to over there the same music? No, it isn't, but the scores from 33 years ago are, I fear, lost forever. I certainly don't know where they are. So I'm starting the numbering over again. If the unthinkable should happen and I end up being remembered as a composer a hundred years hence and I *didn't* make this comment just imagine how confused music historians might become! Or perhaps not; I doubt anyone other than myself remembers the 1974 performance.
I want to emphasise that this is incomplete, which is why both the second and fourth movments end so abruptly. It's also possible that good taste may, belatedly, interfere with progress and wreak great changes. Where's the third movement? Not started yet!
And yes, I do plan more music after this foray.
How strange to speak of software in relation to a symphony but, considering that I'm a talentless git, it's the only way I'm going to get to hear my music. I was extremely lucky in 1974 to hear a real orchestra play a little something[^] I wrote; it was execrable music but a magic moment for me.
You might notice that in the linked blog entry I talk of Symphonies 1, 2 and 3, written all those years ago. So is the music linked to over there the same music? No, it isn't, but the scores from 33 years ago are, I fear, lost forever. I certainly don't know where they are. So I'm starting the numbering over again. If the unthinkable should happen and I end up being remembered as a composer a hundred years hence and I *didn't* make this comment just imagine how confused music historians might become! Or perhaps not; I doubt anyone other than myself remembers the 1974 performance.
I want to emphasise that this is incomplete, which is why both the second and fourth movments end so abruptly. It's also possible that good taste may, belatedly, interfere with progress and wreak great changes. Where's the third movement? Not started yet!
And yes, I do plan more music after this foray.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
What I've been up to lately
Like you need me to point out that it's been a bloody long time since I've written anything? The truth is that I've pretty much run out of things to say and there's a limit to just how much fun I can decently poke at Andrew. I could also use that old saw about if you have nothing to say that's just what you should say!
Well that's one reason. Another reason is that I've been busy doing other things; like realising a long (very long) held ambition - that of writing a symphony.
If you're interested, you can hear the first movement (the only one completed thus far) here[^].
This was done using the Garritan Personal Orchestra for the sounds and Overture 4 for notation. It's scored for full orchestra plus harp and gong. Heck, if I've got the full orchestra available why not use it?
You'd reckon, if I've been playing around with electronics for over forty years and computers for just over thirty years, that I'd be keeping up to date with what they can do. Wouldn't you? But nope, not a bit of it.
Twenty years ago I played around with synthesisers, back in the days when they were incredibly expensive external boxes, but I could never get the sound I wanted. Ie, something that sounded akin to a real orchestra.
A few months ago I stumbled across Garritan and it blew me away. Some of the demo tracks on their site sound very convincing, especially the ones of works with which I'm familiar. Yes, I can tell that the rendering of Dvorak's 9th symphony isn't a real orchestra but I had to listen very carefully to be sure!
Well that's one reason. Another reason is that I've been busy doing other things; like realising a long (very long) held ambition - that of writing a symphony.
If you're interested, you can hear the first movement (the only one completed thus far) here[^].
This was done using the Garritan Personal Orchestra for the sounds and Overture 4 for notation. It's scored for full orchestra plus harp and gong. Heck, if I've got the full orchestra available why not use it?
You'd reckon, if I've been playing around with electronics for over forty years and computers for just over thirty years, that I'd be keeping up to date with what they can do. Wouldn't you? But nope, not a bit of it.
Twenty years ago I played around with synthesisers, back in the days when they were incredibly expensive external boxes, but I could never get the sound I wanted. Ie, something that sounded akin to a real orchestra.
A few months ago I stumbled across Garritan and it blew me away. Some of the demo tracks on their site sound very convincing, especially the ones of works with which I'm familiar. Yes, I can tell that the rendering of Dvorak's 9th symphony isn't a real orchestra but I had to listen very carefully to be sure!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Not dead yet!
Yeah, I've been a slack bastard and let more than a month go by without a post. Thanks for reminding me Iain C :-)
There's been a bunch of stuff happening at the office that I don't feel I can write about. Let's just say that I'm becoming an ambitious bastard. Another way of putting it might be that they're getting to me. But it's still only during working hours and I still don't let them get fifty hours a week for the price of forty. I can be bought but it has to be at a fair price!
Outside of work? Music music and more music! Of late I've discovered the string quartet! Those of you who are members of the CodeProject last.fm group[^] (scroll to find me - it won't be difficult) might have noticed, if you could be bothered checking what I'm listening to, that I've been doing Gavin Bryars[^], Ernest Moeran[^] and Arnold Bax[^] to death. Well I hope not. The latter two are already dead but Gavin's going strong and I'd be delighted to hear his fourth, fifth and sixth string quartets!
How curious that I'm listening to Aqua as I write this!
Speaking of last.fm. Interesting concept but it's rather weighted against musical snobs such as myself. The problem is that they count tracks regardless of the length. If I listen to a three minute aqua song it gets the same weighting as a fifty four minute symphony by Martin Scherber (sorry, the only link I can find is in German outside of the online shops flogging his third symphony). Just watch my stats get skewed by tonights enjoyment of some mindless pap!
There's been a bunch of stuff happening at the office that I don't feel I can write about. Let's just say that I'm becoming an ambitious bastard. Another way of putting it might be that they're getting to me. But it's still only during working hours and I still don't let them get fifty hours a week for the price of forty. I can be bought but it has to be at a fair price!
Outside of work? Music music and more music! Of late I've discovered the string quartet! Those of you who are members of the CodeProject last.fm group[^] (scroll to find me - it won't be difficult) might have noticed, if you could be bothered checking what I'm listening to, that I've been doing Gavin Bryars[^], Ernest Moeran[^] and Arnold Bax[^] to death. Well I hope not. The latter two are already dead but Gavin's going strong and I'd be delighted to hear his fourth, fifth and sixth string quartets!
How curious that I'm listening to Aqua as I write this!
Speaking of last.fm. Interesting concept but it's rather weighted against musical snobs such as myself. The problem is that they count tracks regardless of the length. If I listen to a three minute aqua song it gets the same weighting as a fifty four minute symphony by Martin Scherber (sorry, the only link I can find is in German outside of the online shops flogging his third symphony). Just watch my stats get skewed by tonights enjoyment of some mindless pap!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
I love it when...
a plan works!
Andrew has no idea how to sustain a conversation. Whenever he feels the pressure of silence he'll ask something like 'so, how's everybody?' or 'how's the weather.'. Hmmm, we live in Phoenix - how does he expect the weather to be anyway???
I'll give him points for trying even though over the past year or more I've been encouraging him to break out. How is it going to look when he's having dinner with his girlfriends parents for the seventh time and he can still only ask about the weather?
So a couple of months ago we, that is Mom and I, decided that he should talk for two minutes at dinner each evening about any subject that enters his head so long as it doesn't relate to our health or the state of the weather. Seemed like a good plan.
After a few false starts he got onto the subject of his favourite band. I'll claim credit for the suggestion. With the smile of someone who is certain that his interests won't be shared he imparted the knowledge that one of his favourite bands is Slipknot[^] and dwellt at considerable length on some of their song titles. 'Pulse of the Maggots' for one! Uh huh, just what you want to be talking about over dinner!
I've been a subscriber to Rhapsody for some months now - great service for the kind of music I like - beats Urge and Napster and Yahoo!music hands down. So a little later that evening I checked if they hadStinkbuttSlipknot. Yep, and the album he enthusiastically endorsed.
Five minutes later the album is on my music player and I gave it a listen at the office the next day. I made sure to memorise some of the lyrics (and the tune) and, at dinner the next evening I was sitting there chanting 'I won't let it build up inside of me'!. Took him a few moments to catch on and when he did he asked where I got that tune from. 'Oh', I said, 'from that band you talked about last night, what was their name? Stinkbutt?'. Grin from Andrew. 'You know, Andrew', I said, 'they're quite good.'
You should have seen the amazed look on his face. 'You liked it??? Wow!'.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that anyone who grew up listening to rock in the late 60's wouldn't feel all that lost with Slipknot. About all that's changed is that nowadays rock bands have license to slip in a few four letter words. *shrug*
And nope, I very much doubt Slipknot will ever make it to my 'must listen' list. But I did enjoy it for a few listens.
Andrew has no idea how to sustain a conversation. Whenever he feels the pressure of silence he'll ask something like 'so, how's everybody?' or 'how's the weather.'. Hmmm, we live in Phoenix - how does he expect the weather to be anyway???
I'll give him points for trying even though over the past year or more I've been encouraging him to break out. How is it going to look when he's having dinner with his girlfriends parents for the seventh time and he can still only ask about the weather?
So a couple of months ago we, that is Mom and I, decided that he should talk for two minutes at dinner each evening about any subject that enters his head so long as it doesn't relate to our health or the state of the weather. Seemed like a good plan.
After a few false starts he got onto the subject of his favourite band. I'll claim credit for the suggestion. With the smile of someone who is certain that his interests won't be shared he imparted the knowledge that one of his favourite bands is Slipknot[^] and dwellt at considerable length on some of their song titles. 'Pulse of the Maggots' for one! Uh huh, just what you want to be talking about over dinner!
I've been a subscriber to Rhapsody for some months now - great service for the kind of music I like - beats Urge and Napster and Yahoo!music hands down. So a little later that evening I checked if they had
Five minutes later the album is on my music player and I gave it a listen at the office the next day. I made sure to memorise some of the lyrics (and the tune) and, at dinner the next evening I was sitting there chanting 'I won't let it build up inside of me'!. Took him a few moments to catch on and when he did he asked where I got that tune from. 'Oh', I said, 'from that band you talked about last night, what was their name? Stinkbutt?'. Grin from Andrew. 'You know, Andrew', I said, 'they're quite good.'
You should have seen the amazed look on his face. 'You liked it??? Wow!'.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that anyone who grew up listening to rock in the late 60's wouldn't feel all that lost with Slipknot. About all that's changed is that nowadays rock bands have license to slip in a few four letter words. *shrug*
And nope, I very much doubt Slipknot will ever make it to my 'must listen' list. But I did enjoy it for a few listens.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
So what do I know about Rock anyways?
| The Seeker You scored 60%! |
| I don't know if you've been searching low and high, but you do know your bare-bones classic rock basics. With this kind of score, you probably nailed the signature song questions and most of the albums. You probably don't have much of a classic rock collection yourself, but when your friends play theirs, you recognize the songs. This is a respectable score: you're neither know-nothing nor nerd. |
 |
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The BASIC classic rock Test written by allmydays on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
Monday, October 16, 2006
Life is good
For 25 years or so I've been thinking I'd heard all of Anton Bruckners[^] symphonies, or at least all those I could obtain. I never did seem able to find a recording of Symphony 0 (Die Nullte) back in those days.
More recently even that curiously numbered symphony has been readily obtainable and I've been bopping to it the last few days courtesy of a Napster download.
Imagine my delight then, upon discovering that there's yet *another* symphony now available, the even more curiously numbered Symphony 00 (The Study Symphony). I foresee more bopping ahead. Life is good!
More recently even that curiously numbered symphony has been readily obtainable and I've been bopping to it the last few days courtesy of a Napster download.
Imagine my delight then, upon discovering that there's yet *another* symphony now available, the even more curiously numbered Symphony 00 (The Study Symphony). I foresee more bopping ahead. Life is good!
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Keep your dirty hands off my music!
You mightn't have thought I'd be candidate material to be a Lovin' Spoonful[^] fan but I am. Man, the confessions are coming out lately[^]!
Even though they were a late 60's band I didn't discover them until about 1970; I was definitely working when I bought my first Spoonful Album.
Courtesy of Napster I downloaded one of their classic (I thought) albums from 1968, Everything Playing. I remember buying my first copy of the album at Big W, corner of Swanston Street and Bourke Street, mid 1970, back when it was still Woolworths. This was during my transition from bubblegum to classical and whilst I wouldn't swear to it I reckon I probably bought a 'Best of Beethoven' album at the same time!
The Napster download tracks are labelled with the original song title followed by (2003 remaster). That usually means they digitised the original analog audio.
I wish! Nope, some smarmy young bastard record company executive, having heard the music of his parents and decided it won't go over these days, has decided that it has to be updated! Hence an overlay of extra bass throbs, high pitched tings, a horn part that wasn't there in the original and so on.
Unfortunately for the smarmy young bastard I have a CD of the spoonful I bought in the early 90's; so I *know* that 'She is still a mystery' didn't have all that extra crap.
I want to hear it as it was way back then; not a modern update. It's not as though I listen to the spoonful these days for their musical merit; nope, I listen to them for the time machine.
Keep your dirty hands off my music!!!
Even though they were a late 60's band I didn't discover them until about 1970; I was definitely working when I bought my first Spoonful Album.
Courtesy of Napster I downloaded one of their classic (I thought) albums from 1968, Everything Playing. I remember buying my first copy of the album at Big W, corner of Swanston Street and Bourke Street, mid 1970, back when it was still Woolworths. This was during my transition from bubblegum to classical and whilst I wouldn't swear to it I reckon I probably bought a 'Best of Beethoven' album at the same time!
The Napster download tracks are labelled with the original song title followed by (2003 remaster). That usually means they digitised the original analog audio.
I wish! Nope, some smarmy young bastard record company executive, having heard the music of his parents and decided it won't go over these days, has decided that it has to be updated! Hence an overlay of extra bass throbs, high pitched tings, a horn part that wasn't there in the original and so on.
Unfortunately for the smarmy young bastard I have a CD of the spoonful I bought in the early 90's; so I *know* that 'She is still a mystery' didn't have all that extra crap.
I want to hear it as it was way back then; not a modern update. It's not as though I listen to the spoonful these days for their musical merit; nope, I listen to them for the time machine.
Keep your dirty hands off my music!!!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Impressing em
Writing in my last post about Ralph Vaughan Williams[^] reminded me of an afternoon in 1979. I'd just met Sue, who later became my first wife (Hi Sue!) and she'd taken me around to meet her best friend, who later became Robins wife.
As part of meeting Rosemary it was obligatory to meet her mother. Gwen was a well meaning woman but perhaps a trifle strait laced. She certainly didn't seem to appreciate meeting a long haired lower class geek.
As luck would have it her kitchen radio was tuned to 3AR, which in those days was still pumping out classical music on AM. ABC FM has long since taken over that responsibility and, as far as I can remember, being nearly four years removed from Australia, 3AR (Radio National) does religious programs and critical analysis. I miss 3AR!
But on that wintry day in 1979 they were playing classical music. A piece I didn't know but it had all the fingerprints of early 20th century British music.
So if Rosemary's mum notices that I'm listening to the kind of music she would never have thought I'd listen to it's time to play it up. As for why it's time to play it up I have no idea. It really wasn't important that I impress Gwen. Let's chalk it up to ego and a chance to take an example of smug middle class down a peg or two! Whatever.
A few educated guesses and some wankerspeak and I'd decided, out loud, that it was most probably Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis[^].
You could have knocked me down with a feather when the music ended and the announcer confirmed my educated guess!
Gwen struggled mightily with her middle class prejudices after that; somehow she could never get over the fact that I 'knew' classical music!
As part of meeting Rosemary it was obligatory to meet her mother. Gwen was a well meaning woman but perhaps a trifle strait laced. She certainly didn't seem to appreciate meeting a long haired lower class geek.
As luck would have it her kitchen radio was tuned to 3AR, which in those days was still pumping out classical music on AM. ABC FM has long since taken over that responsibility and, as far as I can remember, being nearly four years removed from Australia, 3AR (Radio National) does religious programs and critical analysis. I miss 3AR!
But on that wintry day in 1979 they were playing classical music. A piece I didn't know but it had all the fingerprints of early 20th century British music.
So if Rosemary's mum notices that I'm listening to the kind of music she would never have thought I'd listen to it's time to play it up. As for why it's time to play it up I have no idea. It really wasn't important that I impress Gwen. Let's chalk it up to ego and a chance to take an example of smug middle class down a peg or two! Whatever.
A few educated guesses and some wankerspeak and I'd decided, out loud, that it was most probably Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis[^].
You could have knocked me down with a feather when the music ended and the announcer confirmed my educated guess!
Gwen struggled mightily with her middle class prejudices after that; somehow she could never get over the fact that I 'knew' classical music!
I don't think I'm their target demographic
I finally gave in and subscribed to Napster. To be honest, the reason I chose them is that I got a free months Napster-to-go coupon in the box with my music player. Pricewise they're not too bad at $14.95 a month unlimited including download to my player.
And, as I've noted before, the idea of all you can eat music for a fairly low monthly sum is quite attractive; they can maintain a much larger library than I ever could. That assumes they have the music I want to listen to of course.
All the usual suspects are there; Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky. If you want the complete symphonies of any of the first three you're catered for; they only have the final three Tchaikovsky symphonies but that's an oversight shared by MSN Music and URGE. Interestingly enough, none of the music services I've checked have Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony either. Or if they do I can't find it! Makes no matter; I have my own copy on CD. And who knows, maybe Yahoo or Rhapsody have Tchaikovsky's 2nd symphony. *shrug*
The Napster search interface sucks! Someone there got the fixed idea that the Artist name is the only search term worth having. That's true enough if you're talking Rock or Pop; if I'm searching for 'While my Guitar Gently Weeps' it's highly likely I want the Beatles performance rather than some obscure cover by a Peruvian band. Hence the focus on artist name.
Unfortunately that doesn't work when you cross genre boundaries. If I'm searching for Elgars Second Symphony I'm going to search on Elgar, not on the name of any of a hundred conductors who may or may not have recorded that symphony in the past fifty years.
I solved that little problem in my own music collection by deciding that, for the most part, Album Artist, Artist and Composer are synonymous terms. Yep, I've skewed the tags in my personal collection in terms of how I think of music but it works for me.
And of course, for the Rock and Pop section of my collection I do differentiate the meanings of Artist, Album Artist and Composer.
Both MSN Music and URGE, whilst not doing it exactly the way I'd do it, seem to be much closer to my ideas of classification.
But that's just the finding of music through their WMP (Windows Media Player) interface!
I have a little over 400 albums (many of them multi-cd). Mixing my permanent rips with downloads that have expiry dates after which they won't play meant I needed a way to separate the two whilst maintaining a single library (because that's the way WMP and my music player want to do it). Easy enough; create a subdirectory called DRM and set that as the download location.
Then select an album and download. What could be easier? What could go wrong? Certainly it downloaded. There it was in WMP but do you imagine Elgars Symphonies were classified under Elgar? Not a bit of it. Nope, they were under Sir Colin Davies. Both in WMP and on the hard disk. It probably doesn't matter what the hard disk classification is; I care about how WMP and my music player find things; not how the filesystem organises em.
A few seconds with MP3Tag[^] (thanks Stuart) and that problem was solved.
All went well and I added maybe 30 albums to my collection and then I discovered 'Sir Adrian Boults Complete Symphonies and Orchestral Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams'. Not, hitherto, a composer I've extensively collected though I've certainly heard of him and had one or two works.
It looked good. 9 new Symphonies and quite a considerable body of other music; I'd be in pig heaven for the rest of the months trial. I downloaded the lot!
In WMP, before doing any editing, it was obvious I had a problem. 6 (count em, 6) tracks all numbered 1. 6 tracks numbered 2. And 6 tracks numbered 3. Yep, you guessed it, someone at Napster imported a 6 CD set and didn't number the tracks sequentially. Perhaps not the end of the world; I could manually renumber them. Well I could, if the track titles identified which symphony each belonged to. They don't! 72 tracks of unfamiliar music that needs to be listened to in particular sets and particular orders and the tags don't help! Nor, unfortunately, does a search of the internet help since not all track titles, containing such time honoured musical terms as 'Sostenuto', 'Allegro' match, unambiguously, with the listings I could find for Vaughan Williams!
In the end I deleted the lot. That way madness lay! I really don't think I'm Napster material and I shall, in all likelihood, cancel at the end of the free trial period!
And, as I've noted before, the idea of all you can eat music for a fairly low monthly sum is quite attractive; they can maintain a much larger library than I ever could. That assumes they have the music I want to listen to of course.
All the usual suspects are there; Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky. If you want the complete symphonies of any of the first three you're catered for; they only have the final three Tchaikovsky symphonies but that's an oversight shared by MSN Music and URGE. Interestingly enough, none of the music services I've checked have Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony either. Or if they do I can't find it! Makes no matter; I have my own copy on CD. And who knows, maybe Yahoo or Rhapsody have Tchaikovsky's 2nd symphony. *shrug*
The Napster search interface sucks! Someone there got the fixed idea that the Artist name is the only search term worth having. That's true enough if you're talking Rock or Pop; if I'm searching for 'While my Guitar Gently Weeps' it's highly likely I want the Beatles performance rather than some obscure cover by a Peruvian band. Hence the focus on artist name.
Unfortunately that doesn't work when you cross genre boundaries. If I'm searching for Elgars Second Symphony I'm going to search on Elgar, not on the name of any of a hundred conductors who may or may not have recorded that symphony in the past fifty years.
I solved that little problem in my own music collection by deciding that, for the most part, Album Artist, Artist and Composer are synonymous terms. Yep, I've skewed the tags in my personal collection in terms of how I think of music but it works for me.
And of course, for the Rock and Pop section of my collection I do differentiate the meanings of Artist, Album Artist and Composer.
Both MSN Music and URGE, whilst not doing it exactly the way I'd do it, seem to be much closer to my ideas of classification.
But that's just the finding of music through their WMP (Windows Media Player) interface!
I have a little over 400 albums (many of them multi-cd). Mixing my permanent rips with downloads that have expiry dates after which they won't play meant I needed a way to separate the two whilst maintaining a single library (because that's the way WMP and my music player want to do it). Easy enough; create a subdirectory called DRM and set that as the download location.
Then select an album and download. What could be easier? What could go wrong? Certainly it downloaded. There it was in WMP but do you imagine Elgars Symphonies were classified under Elgar? Not a bit of it. Nope, they were under Sir Colin Davies. Both in WMP and on the hard disk. It probably doesn't matter what the hard disk classification is; I care about how WMP and my music player find things; not how the filesystem organises em.
A few seconds with MP3Tag[^] (thanks Stuart) and that problem was solved.
All went well and I added maybe 30 albums to my collection and then I discovered 'Sir Adrian Boults Complete Symphonies and Orchestral Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams'. Not, hitherto, a composer I've extensively collected though I've certainly heard of him and had one or two works.
It looked good. 9 new Symphonies and quite a considerable body of other music; I'd be in pig heaven for the rest of the months trial. I downloaded the lot!
In WMP, before doing any editing, it was obvious I had a problem. 6 (count em, 6) tracks all numbered 1. 6 tracks numbered 2. And 6 tracks numbered 3. Yep, you guessed it, someone at Napster imported a 6 CD set and didn't number the tracks sequentially. Perhaps not the end of the world; I could manually renumber them. Well I could, if the track titles identified which symphony each belonged to. They don't! 72 tracks of unfamiliar music that needs to be listened to in particular sets and particular orders and the tags don't help! Nor, unfortunately, does a search of the internet help since not all track titles, containing such time honoured musical terms as 'Sostenuto', 'Allegro' match, unambiguously, with the listings I could find for Vaughan Williams!
In the end I deleted the lot. That way madness lay! I really don't think I'm Napster material and I shall, in all likelihood, cancel at the end of the free trial period!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Alban Berg as filler???
I'd never have thought of Berg's Violin Concerto[^] as filler material.
Yet it seems that it has become so.
I'm *still* tweaking the tags in my music collection and I noticed that I have no fewer than 7 different recordings of the Berg. Yikes! I like the concerto but that's going way over the top.
In my heyday I once had, on LP, three recordings of each of Gustav Mahlers[^] 9 Symphonies, plus the only recording available of the incomplete 10th. But that was then and this is now and I've contented myself with just the one recording of each on CD save for my favourite, the 6th, which I do have in three different recordings.
But seven recordings of the Berg??? It came about like this.
First recording bought specifically to get the Berg. Second recording (actually I don't remember the order) paired it with Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. Third recording paired with Benjamin Brittens Violin Concerto. Fourth recording paired with Richard Strauss's Violin Concerto. And so on.
It's almost as though a 'difficult' concerto has become a badge of honour; every soloist 'must' have his recording. Not that I'm complaining; it's a damn fine piece of music and I do enjoy hearing the differences between performances!
Yet it seems that it has become so.
I'm *still* tweaking the tags in my music collection and I noticed that I have no fewer than 7 different recordings of the Berg. Yikes! I like the concerto but that's going way over the top.
In my heyday I once had, on LP, three recordings of each of Gustav Mahlers[^] 9 Symphonies, plus the only recording available of the incomplete 10th. But that was then and this is now and I've contented myself with just the one recording of each on CD save for my favourite, the 6th, which I do have in three different recordings.
But seven recordings of the Berg??? It came about like this.
First recording bought specifically to get the Berg. Second recording (actually I don't remember the order) paired it with Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. Third recording paired with Benjamin Brittens Violin Concerto. Fourth recording paired with Richard Strauss's Violin Concerto. And so on.
It's almost as though a 'difficult' concerto has become a badge of honour; every soloist 'must' have his recording. Not that I'm complaining; it's a damn fine piece of music and I do enjoy hearing the differences between performances!
Monday, July 24, 2006
The blue gardenia
If you're not familiar with the world of classical music it's easy enough to imagine that much of the music used by Hollywood, particularly in days long gone by, is from that world. I certainly did up until about 1975. The fact that I'd been listening to classical music from about 1970 and still thought that merely indicates that I'm slow on the uptake and that I was still learning.
The problem is that a piece of music written as a stand alone composition rarely fits the action. Music has its own momentum as does film and trying to make the one fit the other only works if the one is tailored to the others rhythms.
Hence the existence of large multi CD libraries of 30 second or less 'stings'. When we were making our movie in 1990/1991 I was still vainly trying to think of ways to make the music I knew so well fit in the edit suite. An impossible task.
Thus it's a pleasure when someone manages to pull it off. Fritz Lang did in this[^] movie.
Considerably simplified, the story concerns a girl who, whilst drunk, fights off an unwanted advance by a bloke and thinks, the next day, that she killed him. Her last memory of the event is Nat King Cole singing a song 'The Blue Gardenia'.
We, the audience are treated to the sight of George Reeves (of TV Superman fame) the next morning listening, in the fatal apartment, to an entirely different record. Nothing less than the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde[^]!
Things for the girl go from bad to worse and the police are sure they have their villain. Until the newspaper guy remembers that she said she heard Nat King Cole and yet they found Wagner on the turntable! Thus follows some wierd stuff including a glimpse of a face we saw in the first 3 minutes of the movie and have totally forgotten; snap of the fingers and it all wraps up and the girl is innocent.
It was a pleasure not only to hear something I know so well as part of the story; it was also a pleasure the way that the music became integrated into the general soundtrack toward the end. Hey, I'm easily pleased!
The problem is that a piece of music written as a stand alone composition rarely fits the action. Music has its own momentum as does film and trying to make the one fit the other only works if the one is tailored to the others rhythms.
Hence the existence of large multi CD libraries of 30 second or less 'stings'. When we were making our movie in 1990/1991 I was still vainly trying to think of ways to make the music I knew so well fit in the edit suite. An impossible task.
Thus it's a pleasure when someone manages to pull it off. Fritz Lang did in this[^] movie.
Considerably simplified, the story concerns a girl who, whilst drunk, fights off an unwanted advance by a bloke and thinks, the next day, that she killed him. Her last memory of the event is Nat King Cole singing a song 'The Blue Gardenia'.
We, the audience are treated to the sight of George Reeves (of TV Superman fame) the next morning listening, in the fatal apartment, to an entirely different record. Nothing less than the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde[^]!
Things for the girl go from bad to worse and the police are sure they have their villain. Until the newspaper guy remembers that she said she heard Nat King Cole and yet they found Wagner on the turntable! Thus follows some wierd stuff including a glimpse of a face we saw in the first 3 minutes of the movie and have totally forgotten; snap of the fingers and it all wraps up and the girl is innocent.
It was a pleasure not only to hear something I know so well as part of the story; it was also a pleasure the way that the music became integrated into the general soundtrack toward the end. Hey, I'm easily pleased!
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Renumbering
I've admitted before that sometimes I'm a trifle slow on the uptake. Strangely enough the latest manifestation of this phenomenon occurred in the same context; digital music[^].
The penny dropped the other day, when, having reached the end of CD1 of Iolanthe and been forced to switch to the second CD it suddenly occurred to me that whilst the limitations of the CD format required that a 2 hour work be split across two surfaces such a split was by no means set in concrete. 30 years ago the LP format split the same performance across four surfaces.
In the brave new world of WMA and MP3 and 60 gig music players such a surface split is unnecessary.
Hence an afternoon spent renumbering tracks, both in filename and in track number metadata. All done the hard way, by hand. Yeah, I could have written a quickie program to iterate over the filenames, parse out the track number (always at the start of the filename) and add an offset. With enough searching of open source I could probably have found an MP3/WMA tag library to do the same for the tags. But I decided to do it by hand.
A decision made without realising quite how many multi-CD sets I actually have! My library track count didn't drop by even 1 but the album count did; from (currently) 434 to 366. But it's done now, backed up to bigboy (my HTPC) and burned in ripped form to DVDs.
But boy does my RSI wish I hadn't done it!
The penny dropped the other day, when, having reached the end of CD1 of Iolanthe and been forced to switch to the second CD it suddenly occurred to me that whilst the limitations of the CD format required that a 2 hour work be split across two surfaces such a split was by no means set in concrete. 30 years ago the LP format split the same performance across four surfaces.
In the brave new world of WMA and MP3 and 60 gig music players such a surface split is unnecessary.
Hence an afternoon spent renumbering tracks, both in filename and in track number metadata. All done the hard way, by hand. Yeah, I could have written a quickie program to iterate over the filenames, parse out the track number (always at the start of the filename) and add an offset. With enough searching of open source I could probably have found an MP3/WMA tag library to do the same for the tags. But I decided to do it by hand.
A decision made without realising quite how many multi-CD sets I actually have! My library track count didn't drop by even 1 but the album count did; from (currently) 434 to 366. But it's done now, backed up to bigboy (my HTPC) and burned in ripped form to DVDs.
But boy does my RSI wish I hadn't done it!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Gotta love the odd anachronism
A lazy sunday afternoon spent alternating between watching movies and napping. Dunno why but I seem to take a lot more short naps these days than I used to. Probably compensation for getting less than 6 hours sleep a night on average.
On the other hand, split sleep is nothing new to me; I used, back in 1976, to sleep for three or so hours in the early evening so I could be awake for the late night movies[^]. Back then I had the excuse that the technology to record the stuff was prohibitively expensive.
One of tonights movies was The Great Garrick[^]. A better movie than the precis would indicate but not great by any means. I note that one of the peripheral but still important to the plot actors was born in 1856! Man, that's a long time ago, even for me!
I have to admit that Hollywood did try. The movie is set in France in about the year 1750. Someone on the staff somewhere must have pointed out that in France they measure distance by the metric system, for there in closeup early in the movie is a sign pointing to Paris, 160 KM. Full points for trying but a deduction for not realising that in 1750 the metric system was still about half a century into the future. Uh huh, a Napoleonic era invention.
The other anachronism is a trifle more subtle. There's music in the soundtrack and music 'in' the action. I can go with the incidental music being of the wrong era but when the orchestra strikes up a tune to accompany David Garrick onto the stage and it's obvious that a 1750 orchestra is playing music that could not have been written earlier than 1800 I have to smile.
I enjoyed the movie. I'll probably watch it again sometime.
On the other hand, split sleep is nothing new to me; I used, back in 1976, to sleep for three or so hours in the early evening so I could be awake for the late night movies[^]. Back then I had the excuse that the technology to record the stuff was prohibitively expensive.
One of tonights movies was The Great Garrick[^]. A better movie than the precis would indicate but not great by any means. I note that one of the peripheral but still important to the plot actors was born in 1856! Man, that's a long time ago, even for me!
I have to admit that Hollywood did try. The movie is set in France in about the year 1750. Someone on the staff somewhere must have pointed out that in France they measure distance by the metric system, for there in closeup early in the movie is a sign pointing to Paris, 160 KM. Full points for trying but a deduction for not realising that in 1750 the metric system was still about half a century into the future. Uh huh, a Napoleonic era invention.
The other anachronism is a trifle more subtle. There's music in the soundtrack and music 'in' the action. I can go with the incidental music being of the wrong era but when the orchestra strikes up a tune to accompany David Garrick onto the stage and it's obvious that a 1750 orchestra is playing music that could not have been written earlier than 1800 I have to smile.
I enjoyed the movie. I'll probably watch it again sometime.
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