Triple Word Score

[swashbuckler332]

• I have taken The Executor in for an oil change and inspection. When I called the shop yesterday, they informed me that I could get a ride from there to Main Street this morning when their driver comes in at 7:00. Unfortunately, the driver didn't show up until 7:30, which made me somewhat late for work. Thankfully I had already called the office and let them know what the situation was. I have made arrangements with Art to be able to pick up the car this afternoon before they close.
• My Scrabble addiction ran into an unfortunate snag in that the EA application for Facebook doesn't work very well anymore. I can't sign in due to communication errors and whatnot. It takes forever to sign in, and is very frustrating.
  
  On the other hand, I have found several people from work who play. We have gotten a Diamond Anniversary Edition of the game, which is a full-sized set that folds into a handy case. It has wheels to spin the board around and a pair of drawers to hold the tile bag and letter trays. I highly recommend it for both convenience and aesthetics!
  
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of Facebook, the Blackberry application for Facebook seems to be pretty useless. I may as well uninstall it and just use the browser.
• As I mentioned earlier, I have been rather hooked on Kritzerland's new CD, a pairing of music from two early Woody Allen movies; Marvin Hamlish's score for Bananas with Mundell Lowe's for Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask. They're both quite nice (Sex is quite "sweet" sounding, if you know what I mean), but I'm finding myself seriously addicted to the Hamlisch score, which is surprising because while I've never actively disliked Hamlisch, his music rarely ever really set me on fire. Bananas is just a delight, however, one wonderful track after another with Latin flavoring, allusions to silent movie music, bouncy comedic setpieces and a very pretty love theme. And, of course, one of the best track titles in soundtrack album history: "Hey Ralph, How Much for a Copy of 'Orgasm?'"
• Speaking of Latin American flavoring…
  
  There are many great scores for lousy movies; Jerry Goldsmith practically made a career out of doing that sort of thing. It makes sense that if a film music enthusiast is stuck watching a crappy movie with a good score, they'll come out of the film remembering that it was one of the few aspects of the film that was any good (e.g. the interminable Slipstream with its grand score by Elmer Bernstein).
  
  On the other hand, what makes a score really obscure is when it is attached to a film that is pleasant but forgettable. A good example of this is Maurice Jarre's amiable score for Moon Over Parador. I can barely remember the movie itself, a political comedy with Richard Dreyfuss, Sonia Braga and Raul Julia (the plot as I remember it is actually not too dissimilar from Bananas), but the score, which came to my attention because of the theme on Maurice Jarre at Abbey Road, is great fun. My only issue is that no CD this convivial should be only a half hour long.
  
  There are reasonably priced copies on Amazon.



• I don't usually listen to "seasonal" music for Hallowe'en, but this year Intrada had released a whole slew of James Horner scores, including Something Wicked This Way Comes, which has become one of my favorite Horner scores. In pursuit of similar music, I loaded Humanoids from the Deep (not so out of the way as I was going to load Battle Beyond the Stars on anyway, which is on the same GNP Crescendo CD) as well as the bootleg CD of Wolfen and Deadly Blessing.
  
  I think that everyone reading this far knows where I'm heading with this. I have included Horner music on many of my compilations (indeed, his contributions are a major force on Excelsior! and all but dominate Silver Screen Star Trek), but I have never before made a dedicated Horner compilation. Of course, the pieces are coming together quite easily - this is James Horner after all - and I've decided to add some cues from non-horror scores that touch on the genre, such as the crystal spider sequence from Krull and material Aliens and the whatnot (if anybody has any suggestions for this mix, please speak up).
  
  The only unfortunate aspect of it is that I'm not sure that I'll be finished with it by Saturday. It will, however, be a nice companion piece to my previous two horror-themed compilations, the Jerry Goldsmith Omen trilogy compilation The Face of the AntiChrist and the new version of my Alien quartet mix The Beast Within.
  
  My tentative title will be A Touch of Dark and I'm searching everywhere for a high resolution image of Jonathan Pryce as Mister Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes that I could use as the cover art to no avail.
  
  I have not abandoned my work on the revision of my Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek compilation. I am just taking a little break from it for a few days.