"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic?'"
Happy Birthday
CRAIG SPAULDING
jailnurse showed me this while I was over at his house this weekend. This short made for charity is a must-see for all 'Doctor Who' fans, just don't read the blurb, it spoils some of the jokes. It's pretty much work safe.
I received the Warner France edition of Outland, which does sound a little bit better than the GNP Crescendo version being somewhat hotter and with slightly fuller bass, which are a great benefit in some of the more explosive cues. The copy, however, is totally ludicrous, including a note that the recording venue was unknown (er… Abbey Road?) and that the score had never been released before on CD (what about the aforementioned GNP Crescendo disc) and that "The Rec Room" was not composed by Goldsmith (actually, "The Rec Room" that is on the album was indeed composed by Goldsmith but not used; the source cue that appears in the film instead was not).
In the notes, the score is compared to Alien, which I have noticed is usually the point of reference for it, mostly because the industrial landscape appears to be very similar (indeed, one can easily postulate that Con Am is a competitor of Weyland-Yutani). While there are certainly some similarities, such as the atmospheric main title (not on the album), I have usually considered Outland to have had much more in common with Goldsmith's action scores than Alien, which is much more in a horror vein. Indeed, the score that I tend to associate most closely with Outland is First Blood, as they share those jagged horn lines and many elements of orchestration.
I have also received the Collector's Choice edition of Capricorn One, which was paired with Outland on the GNP Crescendo disc. I now may hang on to the GNP Crescendo disc for its far superior liner notes, and get rid of the Collector's Choice version as in this case I can hear no difference between the old version and the new, despite assurances to the contrary.
- Assorted bits and pieces:
- The Season 2 set of Star Trek has shown up on Blu-ray and the new set is just as excellent as the first one. While I am not a big fan of the rejiggered effects which tend to look no more realistic than the old effects, but are more versatile because of the technology that created them. However, there are certain episodes where that versatility helps tell the episode, a prime example being one of my favorite episodes, "The Doomsday Machine." The new effects often look like a cut scene from a video game, but it is much easier to follow the story and keep track of the vessels in question. And I have to admit that Sol Kaplan's outstanding score for that episode - one of the most exciting examples of the space opera subgenre - sounds fantastic in DTS-Master Audio.
- I did not like where this week's episode of Mad Men went. Not that it is bad writing (quite to the contrary), it's just uncomfortable.
- I'm already sick of hearing about Roman Polanski. Yeah, the guy is a brilliant filmmaker, that doesn't mean he shouldn't have to face the consequences of what he has done, but I feel that this should not be a public trial for many reasons, not least of which is that it will no doubt turn out to be a full-blown media circus that will not only put Samantha Geimer and her family in an unwanted spotlight, but also dredge up the whole Sharon Tate incident which will do nobody any good. It should happen, but behind closed doors.
- I have not been sleeping well lately. I spent most of the day pretty groggy, which wasn't pleasant, especially as my boss was hovering about my job today.
- Jeez, folks, the Varèse Club disc of Escape from the Planet of the Apes CD is 28 minutes because that's how long the score is. The length of a CD has rarely (if ever) been a factor in its price-point, however (excepting singles or mini-CDs). This is true of any genre, not just film music. If you don't want to pay $20 for it, don't, but quit your bitching. It's a good deal longer than the original Project 3 LP of the original Planet of the Apes (which contained less than half of the score) and is a funky Jerry Goldsmith score from one of his most creative periods. And I'm of the opinion that the suite, while welcome at the time, doesn't cut it (and yes, I may consider revisiting my No Escape mix with the new material).
- My follow-up to my Silver Screen Star Trek revision will be a new version of my Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek compilation Battlestations, and is in progress. I have already prepared a remix of the main title from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to emphasize the snare drums (which is how the 1979 and 1980 edits of the film opened) instead of the bass drum (which is how the 1979 and 1998 albums and the 2000 edit of the film opened), as well as cleaning up some of the sound on the damaged portion of "Inner Workings." I've also remixed the album track "Life Is a Dream" from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to include the electronic bird call sound that appeared in the film mix during the concert arrangement of the Klingon theme, albeit not as prominently as what appears in the movie (an aesthetic consideration); I did not, however, include the segment from "A Busy Man," as that cue appears on its own elsewhere on the disc. As with Silver Screen Star Trek, Battlestations will take the same general structure from the previous edition, but I think that I can do better with respect to specifics.
Farewell
WILMA COZART FINE
1 9 2 7 - 2 0 0 9
I'll still put up almost any Mercury Living Presence recording up against a modern recording.