All posts by ERTorre

E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
Music

A little more on those Led Zeppelin remasters…

The last three albums released by the legendary rock group, Presence, In Through The Out Door, and Coda, have been re-mastered and re-released with bonus material and I took advantage and picked up In Through The Out Door and Coda, though this time via digital download,

When they were at their height of creativity, Led Zeppelin seemed unable to do any wrong.  These last three albums, unfortunately, point out that the creative spark that began and burned so bright on the first six Led Zeppelin albums dimmed somewhat as the band reached its end.  (I say somewhat because even these albums, which I consider lesser works compared to the six that came before them, nonetheless feature some absolutely great tunes)

It was inevitable, I suppose.

Offhand, I can’t think of any artist whose entire career and works produced was uniformly good and/or great.  Hell, Steven Spielberg, one of the today’s greatest living directors, made an incredible splash with Duel, a film I consider one of his all time best works and a clear “first draft” of his first huge hit, Jaws.  Yet the film he followed Duel with in 1972 was the flat out boring Something Evil.

When Led Zeppelin formed, it consisted of both experienced studio folk and newcomers who, together, were a hit from the word go.  Their first six albums, released between 1969 and 1975, are considered by many music lovers to be uniformly excellent and each album carries a mind-boggling amount of classic, very well known songs.

But after the release of 1975’s phenomenal double album Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin’s 1976 follow-up, Presence, was a more muted affair.  Yeah, the album did have great songs like Achilles Last Stand, but it felt like the band was, for the first time, running in place.  The same most certainly couldn’t be said for In Through the Out Door, though there are few that would place that album among Led Zeppelin’s best.  Released in 1979, this album featured the band moving into other directions and using more synthesizer than most were accustomed to hear.  When Coda, their final album, was released in 1982, it was clear this album was a contractually obligated one consisting of discarded tunes that couldn’t find their way into other albums.  By the time of that album’s release, it had been two years since drummer John Bonham passed away and the band was, for all intents and purposes, dissolved.

So what happened to Led Zeppelin in their later years?  How did they go from creative powerhouse to something lesser?

Perhaps they had exhausted their initial creative spark.  They had, after all, released a tremendous amount of material in a very short period of time and it was only natural they might exhaust their ideas.  Another possible factor, sadly, is the alleged drug/alcohol abuse of several of the band members.  It was shocking to me to compare photographs of the band from 1971-3 to photographs from three to four years later.  Clearly several of the band members look far more aged than they should be given the brief time that has passed.

A third factor is the evolution of music.  By the mid-1970’s, the music scene was evolving, as it always does, and the members of the band may well have realized they needed to move on from their trademark heavy rock/blues and try out other forms of music.  David Bowie made a career through the 1970’s and 80’s of pursuing then abruptly changing musical styles.  So too Led Zeppelin tried to change and, with those final albums, introduced more synthesizer heavy songs, country-esq music, and even a calypso/raggae sound.

Did these experiments work?

Not always.

Focusing on the two albums I bought, In Through the Out Door features some great songs such as In The Evening…

The album also featured what may be one of the all time worst Led Zeppelin songs in the country-esq Hot Dog…

Still, even that song has its charms even though it feels really wrong coming from this band.

The final Led Zeppelin album re-release, the out-take filled Coda, nonetheless proved to be the most interesting vis a vis outakes/cut songs.  In my previous post regarding the Led Zeppelin re-releases (you can read it here), I lamented the fact that in the two albums I had previously bought, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy, the bonus material simply wasn’t all that impressive and/or different from the songs ultimately released.

With Coda, I can’t make that complaint.

To begin, the remastered album does include Led Zeppelin’s most famous song never formally released on any of their albums, Hey, Hey, What Can I Do…

But there are also great insights into the working of other songs.  For example, I absolutely loved the early version of If It Keeps on Raining found among the bonus material…

As with my previous review, I can’t fault the remastered songs at all.  They sound great and if you’re getting these albums for that, you can’t miss.  If you’re buying these albums to also get the bonus material, you may want to check out Coda first and foremost.

Computers/Electronics

For those switching to Windows 10…

You may want to read this article regarding privacy problems with this new version of Windows, and how to deal with them:

Broken Windows Theory: How To Protect Your Privacy in Windows 10

When the day comes that I’m able to upgrade to Windows 10, I’ll be following this advice.  It’s chilling how so many computer/smartphone companies mine our privacy nowadays…and we let them!

Orwell’s 1984 was wrong in at least one way: We seem to be freely giving up our privacy to these tech giants.

Books/Literature

Where I’m at…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on my actual, honest to gosh writing(s), so I’ll do so now:

1) I’m a good way into Corrosive Knights Book #6 (I’ll keep the title under wraps for now).  I really like the book though if you’ve read all five books to this point it might take you for a loop…hopefully in the most pleasant way.  I’ve got the first half of the book pretty much locked down but have work to do in the second half.  I’ve written what amounts to a rough version of that second half but there is still a lot of material to sort through and, likely, add to the whole thing.

2) I don’t know why, but it occurred to me that as into the Corrosive Knights book as I was, I longed to take a bit of a break from that universe -at least temporarily- and look back and revise/revisit Haze, the first novel I ever wrote.  I have done the revisiting part and was pleasantly surprised to find Haze’s plot and story still work out quite well.  Alas, my actually writing required some much needed clean up and revising which is what I’m doing right now.  I know the book has been available for a while (it was first made available through Amazon on September of 2008) and I know there are many who picked it up since that time, but luckily most did so through Kindle (ie, digital download) and very soon you’ll be able to download this new, much improved version of the novel without having to pay for it again.  This may happen as early as later this week (I’ll make the formal announcement then).

Haze is a book that is very much close to my heart, and not just because it was my first attempt to write a novel.  It touches upon many of the things that interested me back then and still interest me now, and the protagonist of the story carries more than a little of me within him (though I hope not the crazy part! 😉 ).

Anyway, stay tuned!

Movies

13 Movie Heroes…

…Who Caused Mass Civilian Casualties.

I suppose this list was made before the release of Man of Steel, a movie whose detractors instantly note must have had thousands of civilian deaths during the fight between Superman and Zod.

Regardless, the points made in this article are spot on:

http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_1606_13-movie-heroes-who-caused-mass-civilian-casualties/

Though I loved to see them when I was younger, whenever I see a car chase in a movie nowadays I can’t help but slip into “old man” mode and cringe at some of the crashes presented.  Perhaps its because I’ve driven for as many years as I have and I can’t help but think, when seeing these carnage filled chases, about the civilians in the line of fire.

Understand, car chases remain incredibly exciting if done well, but if one looks at the very early examples of car chases in film (Bullitt, The French Connection, and The Seven-Ups), there is quite a bit made of how the hero has to avoid hurting civilians and, when they do somehow get in the way of the chase, pains are made to show that the civilians aren’t hurt by the chase.

Here’s Bullitt’s famous car chase scene, arguably the very first elaborate modern car chase sequence:

Notice there are very few civilian vehicles on the road during this chase and even fewer civilians walking the streets.  In fact, for a big city like San Francisco, the streets look almost eerily empty!  Note too that the only civilian that gets in the way of the chase is found in the second part of the video, when the action moves from San Francisco to the outskirts of town.  A motorcycle rider falls but the filmmakers make it clear with a quick shot that he may be shaken but otherwise gets to his feet.  As for the gas station at the end of the sequence, one can only guess it was closed and no one was in it at the explosive finale as the scene after no mention is made of casualties.

Next up, The French Connection:

What this film does (apart from the fact that it isn’t really a car chase but rather a car chasing a train), is up the ante of Bullitt by introducing that for the most part missing civilian danger.  Here we have the hero fighting to get to the villain but also having to deal with civilians both walking around and in other cars.  Note how the hero avoids them and what crashes there are tend to not be as destructive as some of those noted in the cracked article above.

Finally, the car chase from The Seven-Ups:

First off, your eyes don’t deceive you.  The man driving the villain’s vehicle in this movie is Bill Hickman. the same stunt driver/actor who also drove the villain’s vehicle in Bullitt.   He also had a role in, and was the stunt double of, Gene Hackman in The French Connection as well!  Clearly Mr. Hickman played a big role in modern cinema’s car chase elements.

Returning to The Seven-Ups, much as I liked that car chase, by this point it was obvious the film’s makers were essentially repeating the Bullitt car chase but with added civilian threats and a conclusion that twists that earlier movie’s ending as the villains survive the chase but the hero is stopped.

I only present these chases to give you an idea of how far things have gone since these early elaborate chases (Bullitt was released in 1968, The French Connection was released in 1971, and The Seven-Ups was from 1973) versus what we see now in films such as Furious 7.

Music

Beatles anomalies list…

Yesterday (you can read it here) I wrote about the three remastered Led Zeppelin albums I bought and my disappointment with the bonus materials on two of those albums (the third album I mistakenly bought without the bonus disc) while also noting the remastered albums themselves sounded damned good.

I noted in my review that I purchased those albums because I was curious to hear the bonus/alternate versions of the very famous songs on the albums themselves and that that curiosity was akin to the sometimes very illuminating rough versions of songs created by the Beatles.

Coincidentally enough, I later find this website devoted to cataloging the oddities found in various Beatles songs.  It is worth a look if you’re curious!

What Goes On – The Beatles Anomalies List

Getting back (there’s a pun there, read on!) to the topic of early/rough/alternate takes on famous songs, this is what I was kinda/sorta hoping to find in the Led Zeppelin bonus material.  Here is the original version of the very famous George Harrison/Beatles song While My Guitar Gently Weeps, for many years hidden away in the Beatles vaults:

Versus the version that made it to The White Album:

Of course, not every song a band/singer creates undergoes such a metamorphosis, but I guess I was hoping to glean something more radical in the Led Zeppelin bonus stuff found on the two albums I bought.  Perhaps the others will have more interesting stuff?

Before I move on, here’s another really interesting oddity from the Beatles: The original rambling, incomplete, and quite political (!) early version of the Beatles’ Get Back. (Told you there was a pun there!)

Versus what it eventually became:

Music

Led Zeppelin remasters…

2 Comments

If you’re like me and grew up around the time I did and are a fan of rock n’ roll music, then you’ve got more than just a passing familiarity with the works of Led Zeppelin.  In fact, their songs, just about all of them, are probably ingrained in your very DNA.

When I heard that Jimmy Page was supervising a re-release of the original 9 Led Zeppelin albums (I, II, III, IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence, In Through The Out Door, and Coda) remastered and with bonus material, I was intrigued, to say the least.

As popular and successful as Led Zeppelin is/was, like the Beatles I was curious to hear alternate/early versions of their most famous songs.  Works in progress, if you will, that eventually lead to the songs I’m so very familiar with.

Yet when the first three albums were re-released with bonus material, I heard mostly negatives concerning the bonus stuff.  The albums themselves, critics noted, sounded bright and clear and beautiful in the new remasters, but the bonus stuff…it wasn’t all that.

So I held back.  While I’d love to listen to the new remasters, frankly, I’ve heard the stuff so many times that I doubted the new clarity would be enough to draw me in.

I was (somewhat) wrong about that.

The other week I broke down and picked up the middle three albums, Led Zeppelin IV (otherwise known as Zoso and even better known as the album that features what is arguably Led Zeppelin’s most famous song, Stairway to Heaven), Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti.  I made a mistake with Physical Graffiti and bought the remixed album version sans bonus stuff.  Though I was upset by this mistake, after hearing the bonus material on the other two albums I felt I didn’t miss all that much after all.

Look, I’m going to be clear here: The albums sound excellent in this remastered version.  In fact, they sound far better than any previous release or re-release (the albums have had at least two remasters before, if memory serves).  So if you’re coming into this wanting to get the very best version of these particular albums, then go for it.

However, if you’re not as picky about the new level of clarity on songs you are very familiar with and, instead, are like me and found yourself curious to hear the alternate/early versions of these famous songs, then the bonus material present in both IV and Houses of the Holy will probably not prove all that impressive.  The rough/alternate versions of the songs presented on the bonus disc (yeah, I bought the CD) sound exactly like what they are, close to finished rough/alternate drafts of the finished product found on the album itself.  You may detect minor different guitars or bass or drums or an extra “aaaaahhhh” from singer Robert Plant and the sound levels aren’t quite there, but in the end this bonus material is not all that far from the end product.

Which makes this a curious…fail…to me.  Yes, the albums themselves sound great but if you’re looking for genuine insight into the creative process, you’ll not get all that much from the bonus tracks found in both IV and Houses of the Holy.

Oh well.

Here is a review I found of these three albums by Mark Richardson for Pitchfork.com.  Unlike me, he was more focused on the actual albums and therefore was far more impressed with the product than I.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19834-led-zeppelin-ivhouses-of-the-holyphysical-graffiti/

Presented below is the Sunset Sound Mix of Stairway to Heaven.  This is the version presented on the bonus disc of the IV album.

As someone noted, this version appears to have a little more reverb but otherwise is pretty much the released album version of the song!

TV

Is this really such a good idea…?

Call me skeptical.

Actor David Faustino, who played nerdy/loser Bud Bundy on Married…With Children, appeared at the premiere of the movie Vacation (which features actress Christina Applegate who played bombshell/airhead Kelly Bundy on the show…I’m amazed I remember the character names after all these years!) and made it known that a Married…With Children spin off…

David Faustino Says “Married…With Children” Spin-Off May Happen

Now, the fact that I actually recall the names of both Mr. Faustino’s and Ms. Applegate’s characters should clue you in to how much I loved that show when it originally aired.  And I can honestly say that I haven’t seen a full episode of the show since a few years before it left the air, which it did waaaaay back in 1997.  As much as I loved the show and watched it religiously during its initial five years, I must admit I lost interest in it -and stopped watching it- at least three or so years before it was finally cancelled.

Regardless, when the show was good it was damn good.  But the idea of a spin-off series, one that apparently features David Faustino (after reading the article -and I fully admit I could have this wrong- I nonetheless got the feeling the other original cast members are up to making small appearances in this spin-off pilot but that this new show might revolve around Faustino’s character), doesn’t thrill me all that much.

Married…With Children was one of those shows that really changed the landscape of TV, an anti-Leave it to Beaver-type show that was crude, rude, and hilarious.  But its humor, so daring at the time, has now been used in so many other shows and series that I wonder if any spin-off could possibly chart any new territory.

As with so many other things, if the spin-off pilot is made and, should it then be made into a formal series, we’ll see.

Computers/Electronics

Windows 10 Day!!!

Today, July 29th, is the first day that Windows 10 is officially available for download but, given the large (extremely large) number of people waiting to do just that, Microsoft is offering the downloads in waves.  Thus, if you’re waiting to download the new version of Windows, you may still have to wait a little while.

Regardless, an interesting article for those who use the Windows platform and are curious about Windows 10 and what it has to offer versus the older versions:

The Best New Features of Windows 10

General

Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars…

Pardon me for once again offering a link to an article involving, yes, Driverless Cars and their impact on society.

Only this time, we go to the legal field, to the effect Driverless Cars will have on our Fourth Amendment rights…

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.

The article in question, written by John Frank Weaver and found on Slate.com, can be read here:

The Fourth Amendment and Driverless Cars

Driverless cars, by their very nature, are technological machines that require considerable computer equipment to perform their functions.  Because they are essentially moving computers, they will likely have considerable memory of their function and movement.

Currently, Mr. Weaver notes, there are cases involving search and seizure of smartphones, noting that because of the volume of information they hold, from emails to photographs to phone calls to contacts, etc. etc. etc., that police should have to request a proper warrant to look into any individual’s smartphone and cannot simply take it from a person and look at the information within it without doing so.

Driverless Cars, when they become what I suspect they will be in the very near future, present a very similar issue.  There is no doubt they will have records of where someone has been taken, where they left the car, when they returned to it, and, given the levels of technology in the vehicles, perhaps even conversations they had (if the car has its own cell phone device), etc.

An interesting read!

General

One more (ages old!) mystery solved…

Never heard of this before, but apparently when two pendulum clocks are put next to each other on the same wall, they tend to “sync up” after a short while.  When the pendulum of one clock is to the right, the pendulum on the one next to it is on its left!

This strange phenomena (that, I repeat, I just now heard of!) has vexed scientists and researchers since, believe it or not, being first observed in 1665 (!!!!) and it wasn’t until now that the reason for this phenomena has been solved.

Care to find out for yourself?  Then check this article out:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/centuries-old-pendulum-clock-puzzle-is-finally-solved_55b56ef2e4b0224d88329866