Recent Listening / Viewing

William Finley in "Phantom of the Paradise"

MUSIC

Hanne Hukelberg: Little Things
Belbury Poly: Farmer's Angle
Misel Quitno: Sleep Over Pieces Vol 1
Black Flag: Damaged
Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Ugly Stick: Shaved
Elvis Presley: Elvis 75
John Zuma Saint-Pelvin: cassette release
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Lovelyville
Phantom of the Paradise: original soundtrack
Morton Subotnick: Volume 1: Electronic Works
Cowboy Crooners Sing Songs of the Old West (compilation): I just plain cannot stop listening to this stuff.

FILM

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE



One of my favorite terrible movies. A Rocky Horror knockoff-esque mishmash of Frankenstein, Faust, Alice Cooper theatrics, and of course Phantom of the Opera: because you demanded it! There's also a dash of a classic early 60s film in there, but to specify would be to spoilerize what passes for the climax of this one.

Paul Williams plays a tediously Mephistophelean record company executive and also crafts an utterly forgettable score for the film, defying the notion that he would one day pen the soundtrack to "The Muppet Movie".

Written and directed by Brian DePalma, and, to be fair, some of the camera work is pretty interesting... either the Steadicam hadn't been invented yet, or they just couldn't afford one, but you can tell he sure wanted to shoot that way. Some nice 2 camera/ split screen setups as well. I love this film so much.

LISZTOMANIA



Oh wait, this movie... oh man. I forgot I'd even watched this till the soundtrack came up on shuffle. Wow, where to begin...

OK. Flush with the success of the film version of The Who's film "Tommy" (which I recall being quite good), Ken Russell decided to make a biopic based on the life of Franz Liszt. Russell was, demonstrably, able to persuade Roger Daltrey to portray the title role in this, one of the most expensively, spectacularly disastrous screen spectacles I've ever witnessed.

Over the course of this film we witness vampires, Ringo Starr, space travel, Richard Wagner in Nazi regalia shooting people with an electric guitar/ machine gun, and original songs by (who else?) ELP's Rick Wakeman. Thanks ever so much to my friend Pat for turning me on to this flick. Not available on DVD in the US, but if the above appeals to you and you got some Web savvy, do yourself a favor.

And:

Hugo
Flash Gordon (the 1980 film adaptation: wonderfully campy!)
Spirit of the Beehive
Superstarlet AD
Once Upon A Time In The West
I Walked With A Zombie
The Saga of Biorn
How To Train Your Dragon
Dark Star
Death Race 2000
Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park
This Island Earth
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (make sure to watch the special features making-of on this one-- wow.)
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
Forbidden World
Cannonball Run
Cannonball Run II

TV

Downton Abbey: as good as you've heard.
Arrested Development: ditto.
Shaun the Sheep: tritto.
The Money And The Gun: this is from back aways, also courtesy of Pat. Deserves an entry of its own.

Blue Heaven: Previews of Original Music

Some works in progress I'm creating for choreographer/ dancer Lisa Conlin's "Blue Heaven". This evening of dance happens February 11th and 12th at Balleraena Dance Studios in Sioux Falls, SD and March 1st- 4th at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis.

Inspired by the loss of loved ones in Conlin's own life, "Blue Heaven" explores mourning through movement. Conlin identifies grief as a multi-stage process, choreographing a segment to investigate each one.

This being a dance piece, my mission is of course to create music that's compelling yet immersive, consonant with the action onstage rather without calling attention to itself. The first two of these pieces (while still works in progress) are presented as they're currently in use for choreography and are quite long, unfolding gradually to accompany current choreography as opposed to being "quick" demos.

Bargaining [ Work in Progress ] by juniorbirdman

For the "bargaining" stage (audio above), Conlin imagines the dancers as orphans in the woods. I've created this piece in response, invoking not only a variety of instrumentation but also the sound of crickets outside my mom's house in Ohio.

Anger [ Work in Progress ] by juniorbirdman

This piece (audio above) accompanying the "anger" stage, incorporates the most abrasive, aggressive noise I've been able to conjure. Eventually it'll also incorporate vocal samples from Brian Evans, who dances solo for much of the segment.

Blue Heaven : End Montage [ Work in Progress ] by juniorbirdman

Here's a rough demo of what we're putting together for the end of the show (audio above), wherein healing and reintegration come into play.

Enjoy! And if you need any more info, feel free to contact me through my web site.

Monsters

I recently spent a sick day watching a bunch of movies, and was happy to stumble across this one on streaming Netflix. Released in 2010, Monsters seems to have slipped through the cracks for the most part. Which is too bad. It's worthwhile viewing for fans of that all-too-rare artifact, the intelligent monster movie.

The film takes place in a large swath of Mexico near the border with the U.S. A returning space probe has somehow left this area "infected" by enormous tentacled beings, for the most part glimpsed as incidental/ peripheral phenomena. A photojounralist (Scoot McNairy) must transport his boss' daughter (Whitney Able) through the infected zone back to the U.S. I won't reveal too much more of the plot; suffice to say the film draws intriuging parallels between the human characters and their monstrous foils (the latter of which we get to know a little better by the end). The characters are well drawn, the cinematography hand-held verite with a magic-hour meditative sensibility.

Indeed, the film impresses technically given meager means. Its imdb page estimates $800,000 as the budget, and claims it was "made with a crew consisting of only two people using 'off the shelf' $8,400 cameras, editors, digital effects programs and other such equipment." I'll buy that, though I'm a little skeptical that "settings featured in the film were real locations often used without permission". My doubt arises from what I like most about the film-- the art direction portrays the alien "infestation" as having integrated into daily life by means of weathered signs and murals, ominous wreckage, and glimpses of news footage. I'm sure some of it could be CGI, but plenty of it seems to have involved actual intervention in the locations that would have involved a great deal of planning and logistics.

But no matter. I love monsters and I love film, and this movie offers otherworldly creatures emblematic of compelling ideas. And that, my friends, is how a monster move oughta be!