Music & Art: Tatooine

Just so readers don't get the idea that I'm all about the old and forgotten music, I submit the following:



Not only being a deceptively catchy tune by Minnesotan Jeremy Messersmith (the self-described "Musician, nerd. Not in that order."), the paper animation by Eric Power in the music video is mesmerizing to watch. Being the old Star Wars fan that I am, the animator/filmmaker's ability to distill and render the original trilogy in 2:40 minutes can't be understated. My kids loved this video, and have been asking me to play the tune over and over again in the car via my iPod. I can't say I ever get tired of watching the glints in their eyes whenever we share a music and art connection of this sort.

Twin suns of Tatooine
Taught me everything I know
Twin suns of Tatooine
Taught me everything I know

There's room up there for second chances
Singles are fine but doubles are fantastic
I'd like to think that there's a star for me and you
Spinning round, falling for one another

Twin suns of Tatooine
Taught me everything I know
Twin suns of Tatooine
Taught me everything I know

Solos are fine but duets are romantic
A pair is grand but a trio'd be disastrous
I'd like to think that there's a star for me and you
Spinning round, falling for one another

Friday Forgotten Song: Everyone's Gone To The Moon

There are songs, if I happen to catch them on radio or the web, that can instantly transport me back to another time. Place doesn't much matter since the time machine remains all in my head to begin with. Random access memory via grey matter, all byway of music and lyrics. For instance, I can find myself back in the 90s whenever I come across Santana's Smooth (or other tracks from that album) -- all of this care of my wife because she brought the CD home one day. Sci-fi Fanatic has been sending me back to the 80s recently with his thoughtful music posts (Cutting Crew's Been In Love Before will do that to me). Just so I don't forget surviving the 70s, Macca and Wings' Band on the Run (along with How Long by Ace) will not let me leave behind that troublesome span. And if pressed, I will say it is Coldplay's Viva La Vida that does it for the 00s.

This post has been moved and updated to my current blog, which can be found here.

Scene & Song: An American Werewolf in London and Bad Moon Rising

Looking back at things as I'm wont to do (my daughter and I inherited my mother's nostalgia gene, so I have an excuse), I noted it is almost two years ago today that I published my very first Halloween-dedicated blog post. Hard to believe I've been writing this blog for that long. Among the films noted within the piece, I celebrated one of my all-time favorite werewolf films:

"The 1981 An American Werewolf in London is first on the list. At only 97 minutes, director John Landis created one of the best werewolf films, ever. Effectively moody, and with great bits of American and British humor thrown about, it still holds up well in story, even after a good many years. The one thing about this particular horror genre, that goes back to the original, The Werewolf, is its tragic, sad nature. And, Landis, though remembered for a lot of excesses in his films, recognized this fact when he brought this to the screen. If you saw this in the theater (as I once did), many were more than a little stunned by its final outcome (especially since it's so easy to care for those plucky Yanks). The other wonderful thing about this film is its great soundtrack. Using many of the older, moon-themed songs, this really connected with the pop culture in a way seldom done before. If you've seen this movie, you know what I write about when you recall the use of CCR's Bad Moon Rising as the pre-cursor to Rick Baker's now famous transformation sequence of actor David Naughton. The year 1981 had another solid entertaining werewolf movie, The Howling. But, it is this one that I remember more dearly."

The rest of this post has been updated and moved to my current blog, found here.

Stephen, Carrie, and Sissy

Having become hooked on horror and Stephen King back in the 70s after reading The Shining, Night Shift and Salem's Lot, I sought out his books every chance I got back then. Plus, when I saw what the auteur Brian De Palma did with the film adaptation of King's first published novel, I had to locate a copy of it from the local library. Carrie was actually the author's fourth novel, but the first one published (in 1974). And, it dealt with a subject that continues to haunt our headlines and landscape.

Critic-Filmmaker-Factotum Bryce Wilson (of the Things That Don't Suck blog), recently wrote a wonderful and insightful review of the 1976 feature film (as part of his grand 31 Days of Horror series this year) and nailed that age-old can of worms with this passage:

"It’s a story that I think, has the best chance out of King’s canon to be damn near eternal. Because as long as there are high schools there are going to know what that furnace of rage that can grow in your belly can feel like. And those who imagine what it would be like if they just let it explode (Or implode. Am I the only one to notice that the only difference between the rash of teen suicides that swept the country recently and the rash of school shootings that happened about twelve years ago is that this time the kids are turning their guns on themselves rather then others? I don’t know what this generational shift means. Or if it can even be termed as a generational shift. I just know that either way it saddens and disturbs the hell out of me.)"

The post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Friday Forgotten Song: Riders on the Storm by The Doors

Two things drove me to write this. The first started the idea fermenting in my sub-conscious (something my wife thinks happens way too often and too much below the surface for her comfort). The second simply inspired it to emerge via my fingers on the keyboard. I'll start with the latter since it deserves the shout-out. My good friend (and the only person I know) from one of those tiny northeastern states published a wonderful music post recently. SFF (from the Musings of a Sci-Fi Fanatic blog) wrote eloquently about the 80's group Cutting Crew and their important Broadcast album from 1986. It's a recommended read. While his primary focus remains all things science fiction, I really enjoy his insights and ruminations on music.

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.