projects The first songs I ever recorded on Garageband. This song, entitled Sitting in the Wheat Field, is part of a five song collection called Wheat Field Suite. It's a very relaxed song, featuring piano, a mild drum beat, bass and guitar.
Sitting in the Wheat Field, music games In three short weeks, a milestone of culture will hit video games. No, not the tenth anniversary of the American Dreamcast launch (Thank you Sega for that wonderful console and the great advertising campaign behind it) but rather the release of The Beatles: Rock Band on all major platforms.
I have anxiously awaited this game since rumors began years ago. Even now as I write this entry I am listening to the work of Sir Paul, although the album was released under a pseudonym as The Fireman. My first Top 5ive was a list of favorite Beatles songs, and it took everything in me to not have the next be a Top 5ive albums. There's a reason why this band is still talked about and revered 40 years after the breakup. What other music group can claim to have their success, influence, and commercial dominance with experimental material. How many people love Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am The Walrus, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Sgt. Pepper? What people fail to realize is how absolutely strange these songs were then and are now. What song on the radio sounds like these Beatles classics? Even a popular group like Radiohead doesn't have extreme success on par with the Beatles with their experimental sounds. Beatlemania will never bite the dust.
But what makes this release so important is not just the opportunity to bridge the divide between aging baby boomers and the internet generation, nor just the opportunity to introduce the greatest music of the 20th century to virgin ears. The Beatles: Rock Band has the power to catapult gaming to the now minority who still hate gaming, not swayed by the Nintendo of the early 90s and the revival of the Wii. I'm talking Gabby Hayes big! Unless a true curmudgeon, how can anyone deny the power of the Beatles and the sheer joy of music games?
09/09/09. Believe.
[sorry if this post made your dog start howling]
Rock Band, The Beatles, music movies I don't read much, but I enjoyed sitting through and finishing The Road one Saturday afternoon. On an airplane, I got through both the book Where The Wild Things Are and the script before seeing the movie. Both films come from books, but the strange tone of each film links them more for me.
Some critics and audience members have called Where The Wild Things Are cold. I can understand that. The movie doesn't demean its audience and approach sentimentality like a broadsword. Instead, the film acts like a confused child and succeeds in many ways. But, for me at least, I think that because it was lacking some emotional connection for me, that I left it underwhelmed, and this was one of my most anticipated films of the year. There are moments where the film connects with me, but they are few, and often work partly because of the music - such as the main theme being hummed by the child.
Conversely, the music in The Road is dismal and distracting. The Road needs to be detached completely, but the music softens it too much in key scenes. After the gun is first fired and a man is killed, the father and son run away and hide by the river. The father embraces the child trying to calm him down, and the music swells. What could have been a very touching scene was ruined by the forced attention on its own emotion, and rather than be in the immediate moment, I was taken back by the orchestra.
Too much sentimentality or too little can ruin a film. For Where The Wild Things Are, if there was more sentimentality, it may have become too much of a run-of-the-mill kids movie. But, as it stands, it's way too impersonal. The Road, probably unfilmable to begin with, hides its darkness in the light of music, and undercuts its own existence by doing so.
Both very good movies, but not my favorites of the year, sadly.
misc. Easter sunday, we were walking.
Easter sunday, we were talking.
Isabel, my little one, take my hand. time has come.
Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
And my heart, isabella.
And my head, isabella.
Frederick and vitalie, savior dwells inside of thee.
Oh, the path leads to the sun. brother, sister, time has come.
Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
Isabella, we are dying.
Isabella, we are rising.
I am the spring, the holy ground,
The endless seed of mystery,
The thorn, the veil, the face of grace,
The brazen image, the thief of sleep,
The ambassador of dreams, the prince of peace.
I am the sword, the wound, the stain.
Scorned transfigured child of cain.
I rend, I end, I return.
Again I am the salt, the bitter laugh.
I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
The ball of sight that leads that sheds the tears of christ
Dying and drying as I rise tonight.
Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . . .
easter, music, patti smith misc. Bruce Springsteen, hopelessness, isolation, music, valentine's day