It has been many years since I originally compiled one of my first concept albums Flight. Along with Songs of the Heavens and The Farthest Reaches, this remained a personal favorite of mine of that particular vintage. However, due to some of the complications involved with the Great Computer Crash of 2010, it never made it on to my iPod. I wanted ( Read more... )

FIRST THINGS FIRST:


• James Fitzpatrick of Tadlow and Luc Van de Ven of Prometheus joined forces to produce a brand-new recording of the complete Basil Poledouris score for Conan the Barbarian! This is a dream come true, especially in light of their masterful re-creation of Lawrence of Arabia. The sound samples that can be heard on the Screen ( Read more... )

Where to begin?

• I moved yesterday. While I still have a few things over at the old apartment (including this very computer I am composing this post upon, which will be moved once I have set up internet at the new spot), the bulk of my stuff has been moved, and I am now operating primarily out of the new apartment. Last night was my first spent ( Read more... )

• I am off the night tour for this week, as I am being sent to pole-climbing school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Despite being relieved at having something resembling a normal schedule once again, I am having a hard time adapting to daytime. Hopefully this will clear up by the time I'm expected to actually hang off of a damned pole. I will be ( Read more... )

• In one of the fastest turnarounds from truncated album to complete score,¹ Varèse Sarabande has just released the complete score to the 2009 Star Trek. Michael Giacchino has said that he was never satisfied with how the album played out, and I myself have lamented that there are huge chunks of the score missing and that the material that is left ( Read more... )

"Happily ever after" is an unusual place to begin a story, but, as the prologue of Pete Doctor's second Pixar film Up illustrates, it a very dishonest place to end them. In a ten minute tour de force, Carl Fredericksen (voiced by Ed Asner) is introduced through the memories he has of his wife Ellie, and the "married life" vignette firmly ( Read more... )

• The First WaltzThe week before last I shot my first documentary footage. This was a very interesting experience, as it is very dissimilar from the dramatic material that I have concentrated on until now. It was similar somewhat to shooting guerrilla style, but while when shooting guerrilla you have a specific event to capture, whilst in a ( Read more... )

• Reconstructive Surgery, Automotive Style
  
  In searching through my recent entries, I was surprised to find that I made no notice of the dent in the Executor which was caused by a guy backing around a corner whilst I was at a stop sign. The damage did not effect the operation of the car overmuch (she had no trouble passing inspection last month), ( Read more... )

• Flux Capacitor
  
  If my calculations are correct, when this CD hits five hundred rotations per minute… you're gonna hear some serious shit ( Read more... )

Most people who would care to know how I feel about the new Star Trek film already do by now, but it makes sense to take all of the diverse comments I've been making about the movie and combine them into a concise statement about it. So here goes ( Read more... )