JCHRants

The Boardwalk Empire Effect

04.25.2012

I really love Boardwalk Empire. Aside from the obvious comparisons with Detroit, it’s got fabulous actors, costumes, sets and great period music. Totally captivating. After all the boffo recommendations, I couldn’t wait to get my first NetFlix disc. I flipped it in and within five seconds I was reaching for the remote to shut it off. This alt rock theme wailing away (which sounds a lot like ‘Season Of The Witch’) under all these surreal CGI-enhanced images from the show. WTF? I must stop here to tell you that I am of that ilk that finds no joy in stylistic [...]

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It Gets To Be A Bit Much

04.23.2012

Detroit

A short post just to say… “I’m not dead.” I’ve started about twenty fabulously expansive rants and I just run outta gas. But it’s been too long. So… 1. We’re actually gettin’ near the end. I had all these grand pretensions of posting snippets of notation and audio and all these really cool images of Detroit in it’s hey day and man? I get exhausted even thinking about doing all that multi-media pre-marketing shit. But the music is even better than I thought. It took me a long time to really believe it… It was just so impossible when I [...]

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Performance

03.11.2012

Web Site

We all gotta have it. As you may have noticed, I’ve been redoing the site; mainly this has been after complaints about the speed. It had gotten pretty durned pokey. And while at it, we made a couple of other changes. So… A couple of announcements: 1. The whole Freebie download thing is much easier now. So for those of you who want something for nothing? You have to do even less of that nothing. If such a thing is even possible. 2. If you purchase individual songs directly, they are now a one-click buy if you use PayPal. No [...]

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Pina

03.7.2012

Culture

The very best movie I’ve seen in a -long- while is Pina; a performance piece commemorating the life of choreographer Pina Bausch. First of all, it’s the first 3-D movie I’ve seen that was worth a shit. In fact, it just wouldn’t work well in 2-D. Director Wim Wenders cleverly exploits the formats innate tendency to render depth in discrete layers. He intentionally creates scenes that look almost like grade-school dioramas. In addition to being extremely cool looking, it also solves another problem of filming dance—what to leave in and what to leave out. How does one choose the angle [...]

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In With The Old Out With The…

11.9.2011

Culture

AKA, New Year, same ol’ whiney posts. But this will likely be the last post before I switch web hosts. As doctors so like to say, ‘Some side-effects may include…’ But hopefully there will be no ‘dead air’. As always, if you notice anything untoward, please give me a jingle… e-mail… tweet… flaming arrow… semaphore… I needed more space and some features to make the upcoming ‘Detroit’ site possible. There’s also the older concert videos which I haven’t had the time or the web space to present. So there are a lot of plans… if I survive. NB: I’m writing [...]

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Film Scores 2011

10.3.2011

Culture, Music Appreciation

Some people are just head and shoulders above the rest in terms of execution; the Michael Jordans. John Williams and Steven Spielberg are like that in movies. I’m not saying everything they do is ‘the best’ every year but, like His Airness what they do is of such a consistent quality that over time, they just dominate. They are the U of M ground game of movies. Warhorse And ‘War Horse’ is another example. It’s not the best work for either, but again, the execution is so damned good that you watch the implausibilities go by and feel your emotions [...]

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Do-Gooders

09.19.2011

Culture

Just when I think there are no new ways left for me to injure myself, I’m currently recovering from my first ‘guitar shock’. I’ve had plenty o’ mic shocks before, but this is the first time I’ve gotten 110vac on the control plate of a Telecaster. I moved my pinky over to the knob to do a ‘pinky swell’ and POW! There goes a fingernail. Ruined the paint job on the guitar. Worst of all, it didn’t even look cool. Just looked like a middle-aged man having some vague sort of mental breakdown—screaming for no apparent reason. In case you [...]

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One Hit Wonder

09.6.2011

Culture

I recently read an article in Rolling Stone (amazing they’re still in business) about the currently popular group ‘Foster The People’. And the leader, Marc Foster, said something like this: I don’t want to be one of those one-hit wonders like James Taylor… you know… doing ‘Fire And Rain’ for the next 30 years. I want to do thirty more great songs like [insert number one song title I should know here] In this Great Age of Narcissism (The Big G), I guess I shouldn’t be, but when I read this, I was quite gobsmacked. I think my amazement and [...]

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