Waterbending

:27 second video

I caught my son waterbending at the pool. I'm not kidding - as you can see for yourself, he's pretty good at it. The accompaniment is a [dramatic] selection from Newton-Howard's final track from the movie entitled, "Flow Like Water." It breaks down like this:

I had a hankering for the 3rd movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony today, specifically the 1985 Karajan recording. As it turns out, once I had it imported and playing I had, for reasons which escape me now, reverted back to my usual library preference of arranging by "Date Added" which played the remaining movements out of order. Because that particular release pairs symphonies (for what I assume is time, though I've oft enjoyed listening to those two together) heading backwards my import finished with the first movement of the 4th Symphony...then segued into the last track of The Last Airbender. These unlikely bedfellows made me stand up and beg for buttermilk.

One word: Marvelous.

Back when Infinity was light-years ahead of the rest of the world engineering speaker systems, and the $50,000 Kappa System V was available for purchase, I had a dormmmate who owned a pair of Kappa 9. It was on this system I first heard Enya, and first heard what Beethoven's symphonies sounded like in the able hands of Herbert Von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
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"You're talking about a composer who has established a very identifiable sound that filmmakers have come to rely upon for a successful collaboration of sound and image. It's obviously a very successful approach, and he has maintained a great deal of musical integrity while pursuing that identity, which is no small feat. And I think one would do well to remember that composers of the stature of Haydn and Beethoven were known to sell the same piece of music to different buyers. Making similar accusations against contemporary composers of film who commonly come under extreme conditions of time restraint (among many other real obstacles) might be seen as being irrelevant in light of those historical facts. So, the short answer is: it's just you." -- Don Davis when asked if James Horner's score to Titanic sounded familiar.
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Let's talk about opera a minute. You people whine and whine that CD's are too expensive. Have you ever priced opera? A good quality full recording is rare to find under $50. But there's oh so much more to consider. Let's say you decide on a piece you want to purchase. You have to consider the label, the conductor, the orchestra, the soprano, and the tenor. And yes, all five can and do very elusively intermix, so you have to put it together like a puzzle. For example. My favorite conductor is Herbert Von Karajan. He has conducted many, many orchestra's but is best known as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic (in which he was appointed to in 1955 and retained until his death in 1989) which as it turns out pretty much by proxy, I prefer the Berlin Philharmonic - but I'll sometimes purchase them over Karajan with a different orchestra depending on which label it's on (see what I mean about complicated?), unless I'm looking for a specific soprano of course...you get the point anyway. My favorite two labels are Deutsche Grammaphon (who, coincidently records most of the Berlin Philharmonic) and Telarc. Why labels you ask? Their quality. I didn't learn this until 1990, in Germany. SSgt Randy Smith saw my Laserlight collection of Beethoven's Nine Symphony's and just shook his head. They were $3.99 each. He loaned me his $100 Beethoven set (which I later purchased in the UK) and threw my Laserlight collection in the trash!
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