Posts Tagged ‘Music’

I walked from work to Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral to see Laura Belém’s Temple of a Thousand Bells which is in the Oratory in St James’ Cemetary as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2010. The work consists of a thousand hand-blown glass bells suspended on nylon string through a gently glowing ceiling. An 8 minute polyphonic piece of music by Fernando Rocha including many different bell sounds fills the room. Really beautiful work. I just wish I’d had more than fifteen minutes to experience it.

As I get older one thing that annoys me more and more is the quantity of what passes for journalism. The rise of editorial over actual reporting. The need to have a journalist at the scene of the event to give a live report to camera and have a nice chat with the studio where a recorded piece with more information used to do quite nicely. Especially when the journalist is standing on a bridge over the motorway reporting on a predicted snow storm that may trap motorists (and presumably the journalist and their crew) on the motorway or reporting from the edge of an outbreak of foot and mouth. Or in its most vile incarnation reporting from outside the home of the victim of an act of crime when they probably want to be left alone.

Today’s story to get my goat comes from the BBC: Hordes greet Warcraft expansion followed by ‘Addicted’ to Warcraft?. What follows is an amended version of my comment on that post.

From Jazz to Horror Comics through Rock and Roll to Dungeons and Dragons then Computer Games and now Online Gaming the press has found an ideal target for writing stories like this one. They appeal to a wide readership either horrified by the harm to kid or kids who are offended by the inaccuracies and broad brush descriptions. I sometimes wonder if such accusations were leveled even earlier against the Waltz, Orchestral music, printing or maybe cave painting?

Yes I’m one of the people who’s enjoyed some (not all) of these and for 20 years found the claims made about them to have little in common with my experience of any of the activities.

Over the years professionals in various fields and concerned pressure groups (some eventually shown to have hidden agendas to push, political campaigns to start rolling or books to promote) have provided studies of the damage figures are quoted levels of addiction, cost or suicide. I wouldn’t mind so much but usually the figures start to fall apart when a back of the envelope calculation is carried out.

Take this story as an example: 11 million registered players for World of Warcraft. 10-15% become addicted. That equates to 1.1-1.65million addicts worldwide. I’ll leave it to others to draw their own conclusions from those figures. If this were a real addiction on a par with the addiction to, say Cocaine, wouldn’t there have been more than 2000 people waiting for the midnight sale? I don’t see a horde of Warcraft destroyed souls wandering the streets begging for the £8.99 a month subscription. Nor do I see a large number of older people whose lives have been ruined by their rock and roll habit from their youth.

Maybe an interesting article would consider the widespread use by journalists of the word addiction. Then place this addiction in the context of a spectrum of addictions from illegal drug use through alcohol and tobacco on to football and people who regularly buy books, magazines and go to their local library. Finally you could look at how journalists are addicts to writing articles about addictions.

Wow. How can you take a franchise as good as the resurected Mummy and pretty much destroy it in 112 minutes?

Could it be the completely miss cast replacements? Maria Bello was no Rachel Weisz. Luke Ford just wasn’t interesting. Perhaps thats part of it too. I know Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li and David Calder all have something they can do on screen but they were criminaly wasted on this outing. John Hannah and Brendan Fraser certainly pulled it off in the previous films too so maybe it was the flat dialogue, the forced jokes, the hackey attempts at character development and the poor editing. It took three lines of dialogue to say what Brendan Fraser said in the middle line which amounted to lets go and get on a plane illustrated just how baddly the script needed work. It kept hitting duff notes. Which brings me to my next gripe – possibly the worst score for a film I can remember where someone had spent time and money to add music. It was distracting, it didn’t fit. The score from the Mummy lifted the film. This was the musical equivalent of concrete shoes. The opening just dragged and the attempt at a humerous ending was weak beyond words.

The special effects were competent but special effects rarely turn a film into a classic.

Hopefully the Mummy franchise has been laid to rest like the eponymous monster of the title until it can be resurected by someone with an interesting take on it comes along and raises it from the dead again…

So we reach that time of year again when my Internet connection plays up and I get to complain…

Except I don’t. Last night my connection vanished suddenly. This morning I checked the status from work and there was a message that a fault had been fixed however just coming online it wasn’t working. So I call the status line and there is no mention of a fault in my area. So I call the support line and after only two simple questions and no music or call holding I’m through to a human who takes me through a few simple steps. I’m not quite sure what unplugging and reconnecting my network cable is supposed to do but I’ll play along. At no point was I asked to sing the Indian national anthem while holding a fish above my head. A bit of waiting later and my connection came back up.

Now if Orange had been anywhere near that good at resolving a connection problem I’d not be with BT.

After a couple of e-mails about some of my recent posts I’m going to flag any posts with potential spoilers in with the graphic above. To clarify what I’m going to treat as a spoiler – basicly I’ll use it whenever I mention anything that might spoil watching something for someone who hasn’t already seen it. Yes that is a broader definition than some people use but I’d rather not spoil something for someone. Frankly anyone pedantic enough to worry about what defines a spoiler and to send me an e-mail explaining their view in great detail, with references and examples, who I’ve never heard of or from before simply because one of my posts got listed on a site really needs to get a life. Now on to Doctor Who: Silence in the Library and there may be spoilers ahead…

Steven Moffat again delivers an excellent episode of Doctor Who with last night’s story Silence in the Library. Again he manages to provide the scariest episodes of the new version although I think the old version, despite all its flaws, did scary better. Kim and Dark Dwarf have I think hit the nail on the head on that one though by picking out that the choice of music has a lot to do with that.

This week’s monster plays at a fundamental level and when revealed is possibly the most frightening of the monsters shown since the show’s revival although a skeleton in a space suit isn’t a new image, even when it walks and talks. The story within a story with the little girl sets up a mystery that will presumably be resolved in part 2 – Forest of the Dead – next Saturday. The cliff hanger was nicely done and hopefully will have a resolution as good as the set up.

One thing has amused me of late about Doctor Who. In several interviews people involved with the making of the new series have laboured a point about the old series having a lot of continuity baggage that they got rid of to get back to the fun. I would be intrigued to know why they seem to be so busy creating exactly the same kind of stuff themselves each week? Alex Kingston’s character this week would appear to be another set up for a potentially recurring character. A couple of weeks ago we got the Doctor’s daughter. We’ve already have Dalek’s John, Paul, Ringo and George or whatever they were called. They sealed the cybermen off in another dimension but it looks like that permanant split wasn’t. I could go on but I need to eat sometime today.

Another Saturday night, another episode of Doctor Who using one of the classic Doctor Who styles: Doctor and assistant run around chased by guards while the story unfolds. Fortunately there were none of the shaky sets that used to come with those stories in the old days and even better none of the bad green screen work from the first two episodes of this years run. A well put together episode with a few modern moral lessons thrown in and symbolism that was almost too heavy but wasn’t pushed too hard especially given the tea time slot.

And now for this weeks Doctor Who related grumble ^*1 … I do wonder if the schedulers know what their up to: moving the time the show is on each week so far this year seems a little cavaliar. I know its supposed to be "a gateway to Saturday night TV" but do you move the way into a fun fair each week? If you do will you notice the people who go to the wrong place and arrive late or not at all because its a success anyway?

Going off on a complete tangent I was shopping in M&S today looking for some clothes. I’d swear the v-neck jumpers they were selling were exactly the same as I was wearing in 1986 right down to the garish colours and the synthetic fabric mix. I know time travels the in thing with Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes on the telly but we’re in real trouble if mens’ fashion design has slipped back to the mid-80s. Whats next a Snood revival with Nick Kershaw ^*2 fronting the M&S ads? Its not just a bad fashion statement it’s a Marks and Spencers taste disaster…

*1 well they fixed the FX but what would Saturday be without a little rant.

*2 with all due respect to Mr Kershaw whose new albums I still buy and whose music has been amongst my favourite choice for writing to for years.

Saw The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at a packed Liverpool Philharmonic tonight. Like Weird Al Yankovich and Bill Bailey they manage to survive in a world in which music and a sense of humour are no longer combined often enough. They are more than competent musicians able to arrange a well known piece from one musical genre to another in ways that can only be experienced. Add to that a line of banter linking the songs, some great jokes and a few (deliberately) bad ones along the way and I’ve not laughed as much since I saw Hot Fuzz.

Now I was trying to pick one of their songs from tonight to highlight. Should I go with their well known version of Smells Like Teen Spirit? The excellent medley Fly me off the Handel? Perhaps the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? In the end I decided to go with my favourite cover, their swing/Yorkshire version of Wuthering Heights…

Saw Kodo at the Liverpool Philharmonic and I have to say I had a really good time. I’ve heard their music on CD but it just isn’t the same as feeling the vibration of the big drums run through you. It’s not just about big drums though there were subtler pieces played on shamisen, flute and drums. Then there is the complex rythms of massed smaller drums which isn’t to say they can’t kick up some volume when they’re really getting hit.

Add into the mix some acrobatics, some comedy, a dragon formed by a woman playing the drum while standing on a man’s shoulders, four oni and a bit of audience participation and there’s plenty of spectacle. The audience was a real mix from shocking red haired punks through rockeers to classical music lovers. It was great to see so many children in a concert hall too.

I’ve not forgotten about my lighting tutorials – before I started writing this I made notes on the rig that was used tonight so I can use it for inspiration. It was simple but effective. No overly distracting changes just simple fades and with enough variety to add to the show.

(Don’t worry about the banner above saying Christmas – the film company doesn’t seem to have thought about anywhere but USA)

Just been to see Sweeny Todd at FACT in Liverpool. One of my favourite musicals – we staged it on when I was at school. Almost spoilt by the couple who needed to get a room sat next to me till they clearly decided that they needed to get a room and left. I think that left the only two seats empty in the whole screen.

The film isn’t a slavish reproduction of the stage version but the changes all worked. Out went the chorus so there was no danger of the big, Fame! style, song and dance numbers. Instead we were treated to a selection of solos and duets all of which worked really well. It was obvious that some of the cast are not singers but all of them sang within their capabilities and carried their numbers well. I had heard Anthony Head was making an appearance but he was only in the crowd for a moment and didn’t sing. He’s listed as being in it on his web site but the IMDB only manages an (uncredited) (unconfirmed)

The sets and lighting were gorgeous and had a definite nod to the theatre without becoming overly distracting. The colour pallet used for the night scenes used a selection of blues. The blood was a very strong red and his being Sweeny Todd, not Mary Popins, there was a fair amount of blood used. In many of the scenes the use of lots of blood helped make the film less horrific and more comical. There was a fair smattering of bad language which I don’t remember from doing it at school.

It has an 18 Certificate over here and I’m not 100% sure why. I’ve seen 15s that I would say were more disturbing. I can see them at the certification board:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Bad language CHECK. Violence CHECK. Gratuitous Blood CHECK. Excessive Display of Helena Bonham Carter’s bosom CHECK. Cannibalism CHECK. The word Demon in the title CHECK. That’s seven checks so it’s an 18. Seven? I only count six. The bosom sir, it was extreemly gratuitous.

Hollywood Action Gore Fest III – Gratuitous violence CHECK. Guns CHECK. Bad Language CHECK. Body count in the 100s CHECK. No artistic merit CHECK. Sorry can’t let the last one count. So that’s only three checks. Only a fifteen then.

Overall I’ve got to say a good film worth seeing.

Went out with a few friends for a pre Christmas drink in Liverpool tonight. We met in a city centre pub for convenience. We might have stayed there if they hadn’t hired the kind of DJ who finds it hard to mix from one track to the next and tries to cover it up by playing the music as loud as possible. However he seemed to be popular with the group of already inebriated women at a nearby table who were constantly running in and out of the pub for a cigarette.

The second pub we visited was a more sedate atmosphere free of music until a small choir began singing carols. Now I’m picky about carols in pubs. If your going to ask me for money I want to at least hear you make an effort. I have a mental tick at the first hint of carols these days from too many choirs gone bad. However for once I was soon enjoying some of the best carol singing I’ve heard in Liverpool.
I think they said they were the Philamonic Choir but I could be wrong and they were singing to raise money for Shelter. They really gave the end of the evening a special ambiance.

As I was walking past the first pub we’d been to to get the last bus home I noticed the same women dancing to the same song that had been on as we left three hours earlier. So I think they had the ambiance they were looking for too. Hope they had as good an evening as we did.