Monthly Archives: March 2015

Music

The Rise and Fall of Metallica…

The most interesting thing about reading interviews is that sometimes you may glean a bit of knowledge that surprises as well as fascinates you with its insight.

This happened when I was reading the following interview with the authors of Birth, School, Metallica, Death and Into the Black from Salon.com, concerning the rise and fall of the heavy metal group Metallica:

“What the f*ck have we got ourselves into?”: The Rise and Fall of Metallica

Now, before I get into what I found so fascinating in the interview, let me first state that I really like Metallica’s first album, Kill Them All, but have middling feelings about most of their other output.  There are a smattering of songs from other albums I enjoy, but I’ve always felt their first album was their strongest.  Further, in the realm of metal music, I’ve preferred the music of Megadeth (although to me their post-Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia albums are lacking) and Anthrax.

Having said all this, here is what really intrigued me in the interview.  It is the very last question and the authors’ answer (the part I found so intriguing is bolded):

Salon Question: What is the legacy of Metallica one hundred years from now?

Good question. A hundred years is a very long time. Given that almost no music from a hundred years ago is widely known by the general public, it’s tempting to say that it might not be remembered at all. But if it is, they will be recognized as the greatest metal band of all time.

As I said, this bit of information, something that if I had given some thought to would probably have realized on my own, nonetheless struck me as so very fascinating because it so clearly speaks of the transitory nature of music appreciation.

We are creatures that live and appreciate what goes on around us in the “here and now”.  But our “here and now” is not necessarily other peoples’.  Or, to put it another way, what we find memorable is not necessarily what others find memorable.

And so it is, perhaps more so than with other works of art, with music.  For popular music is generational.  When I was growing up, The Beatles were considered (and are to many still considered!) the best rock band there ever was.  Yet when they were coming up, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were clearly influenced by the music they grew up to, which was 1950’s era rock and roll.

As much as I love Beatles music, I can’t get into most of the 1950’s era rock music, even though I know it was the foundation of much of what came afterwards.

I’ve noted many times before my love for the music of David Bowie, yet his output simply doesn’t work for my daughters, even though some of the music that does work for them displays to my ears clear echoes to Mr. Bowie’s works.

Ironically enough, I recall reading a very old (it must have been released in the late 1980’s or earlier) interview with James Hetfield, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Metallica, wherein he marvels at the music of the Beatles, a band he had at that point just discovered.

So the statement that “almost no music from a hundred years ago is widely known to the general public” is spot on…and rather sad.

I’ve always hoped that good art, whether it be novels or movies or television shows and, of course, music would stand the test of time. Yet the reality is that while we may still admire ancient artworks or ancient architectural wonders or old novels or poems, of all the art forms out there it seems to me music appreciation is the one that has the hardest time surviving the passage of time.

There are exceptions of course.  Most people know or at least recognize Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (and more likely the famous opening rather than the whole thing).

Yet let’s be truthful here: If you’re a modern teen in the mood to listen to music, I doubt you’re popping this into your player.

A while back I read another interview, this one with Henry Rollins (a truly fascinating singer/actor/comedian who came into prominence back in the 1980’s with the punk band Black Flag) wherein he stated that when he was a teen, his father would yell at him about the music he was listening to and tell him it was all garbage to his ears.

Mr. Rollins noted how his “old man” simply didn’t get the then modern music and therefore it proved how out of touch he was.  Mr. Rollins went on to state that his teen self couldn’t believe how someone could get that way and be as out of touch with music as his father was.  As a teen, he could only shake his head and say he’d never become like him.

The kicker?  Mr. Rollins went on to say that over time he’s found more recent music harder and harder to like.  With great humor and irony he notes that he finds most of it awful and that he has, effectively, become his father!

And so it goes.

Books/Literature

Two-Page Hardy Boys Plot Outline…

Fascinating, though short, article regarding the two page plot outline author Edward Stratemeyer directed writer Leslie McFarlane to follow in crafting The House on the Cliff, the second Hardy Boys book which was originally released in 1927:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the-vault/2015/03/13/history-of-the-stratemeyer-syndicate-hardy-boys-plot-outline.html

I’ve probably mentioned it before, but The Hardy Boys were among my first reading passions.  Over perhaps five or so years I found and read just about every book in their series available at the time (we’re talking up to the late 1970’s) before going into Nancy Drew and, to a far lesser extent, The Bobbsey Twins.  I can’t even guess as to how many books of those three series I read, though they must have totaled close to 100 before I finally outgrew them and explored other works.

Still, I distinctly recall the thrill of realizing one could string together a series of words that eventually resulted -magically, it seemed!- in a singular work of entertainment.  There is little doubt these quickly written works influenced me a great deal, leading me in their own way to become an author as well.

Anyway, as I looked up the book, I found images of the various cover designs for The House on the Cliff.  It is interesting to see how the cover design evolved over time while retaining the same general concept.

  

The above are three very early versions, while the one below is the one I’m most familiar with.  However, this is a more recent version, too, as the one I knew didn’t have “The Hardy Boys and the flashlight and #2 to indicate where it fell in the series.

Finally, a more recent “update”:

Books/Literature

The bizarre, unsolved mystery of “My Immortal”

Until I read this article I never heard “My Immortal”, which many consider one of the very worst examples of “fan fiction”.  To say the least, I’m intrigued.  You might be too:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/03/13/-my-immortal-who-is-responsible-for-the-world-s-worst-fanfiction.html

“My Immortal” is a nearly 23,000 word long story featuring the cast of Harry Potter in a weird, very weird bit of fan fiction which features a goth vampire central character, sexual escapades, vulgarities, misspellings of character names, etc. etc.

There are those who feel this work has to be a knowing parody of fan fiction but…I’m not so sure.  Still, the article is fascinating, especially given the fact that the author -or authors!- remain a mystery to this day.

Fascinating stuff!

General

Plaster casts of the citizens of Pompeii

Perhaps one of the more fascinating realizations, back in the 19th Century and during the initial excavation of the lost city of Pompeii, was that the skeletal remains of the victims of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, all of whom were buried in mud and ash, had empty spaces around them.  Spaces that originally occupied the victims’ flesh.

A grim finding, but one that resulted in a historical curiosity: By pouring plaster into those empty spaces, the empty spaces effectively became a mold of the victims.  Once hardened, the plaster would effectively allow modern audiences to “see” the victims of Mt. Vesuvius as they lay dying way back in 79 A.D.

Here then is an article that features some of those plaster figures.  Their final moments on this planet must have been agonizing, yet seeing these victims allows us to travel back in time and see people (and animals!) as they were back then.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2015/03/12/plaster-casts-of-victims-bodies-at-pompeii-in-italy.html

Books/Literature, General, Movies

It’s been a while…

From Cracked.com, 4 Awful Works by Famous Geniuses Everyone Pretends to Like:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-terrible-ideas-from-historys-greatest-geniuses/

I really have to agree with the second item, John Lennon’s Revolution #9.  I’m as big a fanatic of The Beatles as can be, but that “song”…

In fact, when I was transferring my CDs to my hard drive, I was tempted to delete the song but wound up keeping it only because of my desire to keep the album complete.  However, and to the best of my memory, I’ve only listened to Revolution #9 once from start to end and never had a desire to revisit it.

Still, this list, while amusing, points out the fact that even the best of the best creators have their “off day” and, in some cases, one can say that the “bad” work is in the eye/ear of the beholder.

Still, an interesting if too brief read.

For the masochistic out there:

Computers/Electronics

Apple’s 7 Most Annoying Decisions…

…at least according to CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/2015/03/11/apple-usb-macbook/index.html

I’m not a huge Apple fan.  Never have been, though as I’ve mentioned before I do use my iPad quite a bit and, based on that, decided to go for an iPhone.  I’m not as enamored of that piece of tech as I am the iPad.

Having said that, I do admire the business model and the care/hoopola with which Apple has released their products.  But I can see how some of the items listed on the above link could be annoying while at least one of them is a good example of forward thinking on Apple’s part,

Apple’s “one port” on its computers strikes me as especially silly.  Why not have at least two such ports and on each side of the computer?  Why not give people the option to connect more items at one time?

On the other hand, the forward thinking certainly applies to their decision to rid their computers of, first, the 5.25 drive and then the 3.5 drive.  The fact is that both drives, now many years obsolete, deserved to be gone.  But not having a CD/DVD/BluRay drive?  That strikes me, again, as silly.

While I can see our tech future will probably rely more and more on cloud memory and downloading/streaming movies/music, It feels counterproductive, at least for now, to not include such items.

Ah well, who am I to argue with a successful, multi-billion dollar company?!

Movies

Firepower (1979) a (incredibly) belated review

4 Comments

Firepower is one of those films I saw once way, waaaaay back when it was released, perhaps in 1979 or 80 and never again.  Yet certain parts of it stuck with me and, when I learned it was going to be released to BluRay, I pre-ordered it.  On Tuesday it arrived and yesterday, for the first time in some (gulp) 35 years, I once again saw it.

How did I feel about revisiting it?  Read on, read on…

Let me start by saying I can’t really explain why the film stuck with me during all this time.  I couldn’t recall the movie’s plot but certain things remained: James Coburn’s cool machismo.  Sophia Loren’s absolute, undeniable beauty.  And yes, O. J. Simpson’s fate.

These three are the principles in the film, which to its credit begins with a couple of really BIG bangs (pardon the pun).  Which is good because after that explosive (jeeze) start, things settle down a little and the plot unfolds for a bit before we’re hit with the next wave of action.

The plot?  It goes like this: Sophia Loren is Adele Tasca and, in the movie’s opening minutes, she becomes a widow.  Afterwards Adele is eager to get revenge on the man she feels is behind the killing: Reclusive and, except for one very old photograph, unseen billionaire Karl Stenger (he’s basically a Howard Hughes type).  The U.S. Government, like Adele, are eager to get their hands on Stenger but, unfortunately, he is hiding out somewhere in the Caribbean and beyond U.S. extradition.

Adele suggests to the Feds they hire mercenary -and former flame- Jerry Fanon (James Coburn) to take up the job of bringing Stenger back to face justice.  They eventually do just that and Fanon, accompanied by right hand man Catlett (O. J. Simpson), and Adele all find themselves on Antigua and in pursuit of their prey.

I don’t want to get into too many spoilers beyond this point, but suffice it to say the film winds up being filled with double crosses, violence, and action.

As I said, I didn’t remember much of the film, but as it played out, I couldn’t help but think that the film plays out like a more violence filled episode of the original Mission: Impossible.  In fact, it plays out that way so much that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the original script was intended for that TV show and was expanded for this feature.

The cast alone makes the case for me: Coburn is essentially Jim Phelps, Sophia Loren is the female star (Cinnamon or Lisa or Dana), and O.J. Simpson is a combination of Barney and Willy, simultaneously brains and muscle.  There is no use of disguise, but there is a…well, as I said before, I won’t get into spoilers!

The film moves reasonably well though, as with other older films, modern audiences may find the pace a little too slow.  In re-watching the film, I also came to the conclusion that Sophia Loren, rightfully considered a screen legend, was nonetheless miscast in the principle role.  Her character needed to be more of a femme fatale, but Ms. Loren was a little too aloof for this role.  I got the feeling she was simply reading her lines and moving along.  This particularly hurt toward the end of the film, which features considerable revelation and double crossing.

In conclusion, revisiting Firepower proved an interesting experience.  I don’t believe it is a particularly “great” film, but it is an entertaining bit of action that features a meaty and, to be fair, at times preposterous, plot.  Nonetheless, it is entertaining enough to spend some time with.

TRIVIA: When the film was in the works, the producers originally wanted Clint Eastwood for the Fanon role but he ultimately declined.  Charles Bronson was also considered for the role (he and director Michael Winner had worked together on many features) but supposedly dropped out because he wanted his then wife Jill Ireland in the movie but she couldn’t be accommodated into it.

General

2014 Solar Power…

So, according to Mother Jones, 2014 was the biggest year for Solar Power ever:

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/03/2014-was-biggest-year-solar-power-ever

Very encouraging news, in my opinion.  I’ve noted before that it seems silly to continue using “old” technology when new, better technology is available.

It would appear solar power is becoming not only more prominently used, but is cheaper and cheaper to purchase.

I long for the day when we no longer use oil or coal.  It’s past time we had a cleaner, more efficient energy system…one that doesn’t pollute nearly as much as the current one.

Looks like that time may be coming.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Movies

The Flash directed by…Ingmar Bergman?!

Absolutely hilarious “trailer” for a Ingmar Bergman directed Flash show/movie.  If you don’t know who The Flash is, he’s DC Comic’s fastest man alive, a superhero capable of running faster than anyone…

…and in the hands of “Ingmar Bergman”, he becomes rather…moody:

Btw, found this video at:

http://groupthink.jezebel.com/the-flash-directed-by-1690110714

Movies

Blomkamp’s Alien in trouble…?

That was quick.

A few weeks back, the internet community was salivating at the curiously timed release of director Neill Blomkamp’s sketches regarding a possible fifth Alien film, one that features an older Ripley and, intriguingly, acid scarred Hicks.

To say I, like many others, was intrigued is an understatement.  I love the first two Alien films but felt the series made a very bad turn with Alien 3, which in the opening minutes cancelled out all the good that Aliens had accomplished by mercilessly -and, to my mind stupidly- killing off both Newt and Hicks, the only other human survivors of Aliens.  Alien Resurrection, to me, was a decent enough film which was neither terribly good or bad…but very mediocre.

So when Mr. Blomkamp’s ideas surfaced, the idea that the studios would have the -let’s face it- balls to consider a new Alien film that (it had to, right?) effectively ignore the events of Aliens 3 and Resurrection felt daring, fascinating, and quite bold.

Fox Studios took note of the fan reaction and, in short order, Mr. Blomkamp reported that his next film would be this new Alien feature, and there was much rejoicing.

But lost in all the hoopla was the fact that Mr. Blomkamp had a new film about to come out, Chappie.

As I said above, the release of all this Alien stuff was “curiously” timed.  After all, rather than push a new project, wouldn’t Mr. Blomkamp want to push his new project and get it to succeed before he starts jumping on his next project?

Beneath the excitement over this potential new Alien film, some started to question why the director was turning the chance to promote his to be released film into a push for his next one.

There grew a feeling that Chappie, like Mr. Blomkamp’s previous film Elysium, wasn’t all that good and Mr. Blomkamp and the studios knew it and that’s why he was pushing his next work.

Well, Chappie’s been released and the critical reviews haven’t been all that good.  Rottentomatoes.com currently has the film hovering in the 30% range for critics, a pretty dreadful score.  Audiences, however, appear to like it more, giving it a far better 67% positive.

Still the word of mouth doesn’t appear all that strong and it doesn’t look like Chappie will survive too long in its release.

Which has created a noticeable shift in opinion among many regarding Mr. Blomkamp’s Alien film.  People who were clamoring for Mr. Blomkamp’s take on the Alien franchise are, quite suddenly, ambivalent regarding his involvement.  Mr. Blomkamp has made three films so far, the well received -and successful- District 9 and followed that up with Elysium and Chappie, both of which appear to be disappointments.

Has the bloom left the rose?

I think it has.

The first sign of trouble was this intriguing article from Jeremy Smith and published on Ain’t It Cool News.  Now I know there’s a lot of nonsense published on that site, but now and again they present some articles that offer you food for thought, something Mr. Smith certainly has.  Read it for yourself:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/70604

Perhaps the most hard hitting lines from that article are these.  I’ve bolded the statement that really hit home:

That last bit from Blomkamp (that he feels his talents aren’t best utilized as a director) comes courtesy of an interview with Uproxx’s Mike Ryan (which was conducted before the “ALIEN 5” deal was announced), and I think it’s a huge red flag. Given that Blomkamp now admits he “fucked up” ELYSIUM, and is so enamored of his latest movie, CHAPPiE, that he spent a good chunk of the press tour promoting his involvement in a new ALIEN flick, I’m not sure he should be getting a shot at a major franchise that could give a passionate filmmaker – i.e. one who believes with absolute certainty that he/she is a director – a significant career boost.

Ouch.

If Chappie winds up being a huge bust, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox changes their mind about doing Mr. Blomkamp’s Alien.

Given what’s gone on, perhaps, just perhaps, that’s not such a bad thing.

Still, I would love to see someone give us a Alien film that brings back Ripley, Hicks, and Newt.

As always, we’ll see.