Geeks: Real vs. Presumed

[ehowton]

Because things like "Sci-Fi" (and to a much lesser degree, the recently SMACKDOWN-laden SyFy channel) are mainstream popular, so then are those who consider themselves geeks. When Valley Girls were popular for example, that didn't make you a geek...You were, after all, just following what was popular - much as you are now. Logging into Facebook does not make you a geek either <-- everyone does it.

But I'm not here to argue the denotation and/or societal nuances of geekdom - though believe you me, I could tell you stories, having grown up one. I'll leave those bittersweet tales for later. What I would like to say is DON'T YOU DARE ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME when I mention the score to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse because its an overrated tween vamp movie. Let me explain:

Before Peter Jackson, there were these things called "books" and people would "read" them. The geekier ones read a genre popularly known as "fantasy." Believe it or not, The Lord of the Rings was a trilogy of books long before it was made into a movie and thrust you into geekdom because you enjoyed something mainstream. I'm not discrediting the films - they were magnificent - and I'm not attempting to hold on to a mantle I feel I deserve over someone else either, for as far as I'm concerned, press is great for obscure niches - oh the things I've learned because they were hone from popular culture (I would've never read Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita had it not been for Sting and the Police...)!

One of the things which made The Lord of the Rings trilogy so memorable was its music. The film's "score" or background instrumental music. In this case, the composer of the score for all three films was Howard Shore. His music was so good, in fact, that he won two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score. This is the same guy who wrote the music to Eclipse. <-- The music doesn't have anything to do with teens, tweens, bored housewives, Robert Pattinson or vampires! Enjoying a grand score by a great composer, is not jumping on a squeeing bandwagon, and when you roll your eyes at the mention of the title, you give yourself away.

So listen, learn, and blend.

Comments

[quicksilvermad.livejournal.com]

What I would like to say is DON'T YOU DARE ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME when I mention the score to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
*snicker*

Speaking of scores... I totally understand. Carter Burwell did the score for Twilight. The movie and book series may be overhyped, but the score is just beautiful. It's gorgeous music from a talented composer who writes the most ethereal and beautiful piano pieces I've heard. Just listen to his score for Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.

As for someone like David Slade whoring himself out to direct a Twilight movie? I was livid. He directed Hard Candy and the ever-so-excellent 30 Days of Night. WHY DID YOU DO ECLIPSE, DAVID?
Oh yeah.
Money.

The whole reading thing just gets me thinking back to that experience I had in 10th grade... Our teacher had us reading Fahrenheit 451 aloud and was calling on students at random to pick up where the other left off. After listening to the fifth kid stumble through a paragraph I'd had no trouble with when I was in fourth grade, I started reading at my own pace and finished the book. The teacher called on me to pick up from the latest stopping point and I told him that I'd finished already.
He yelled at me.
Told me to "never do that again."

I think I gave him a "you've got to be joking" look. Here I was in 10th grade listening to kids read out loud at a fifth grade reading level and he was scolding me for actually learning something. Whatever.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I loved Carter Burwell's inaugural score and was petulant (http://ehowton.livejournal.com/297420.html) over New Moon's LIMP FISH COMPOSER Alexander Dumas. Once my ire settled, however...well, I have to admit its a magnificent score.

As for the book reading, STOP EXCEEDING MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS. It throws off the data :P (I've actually been tossing around a post in my head about my own experiences in the ill-fated "Talented And Gifted" public school program, how it helped and how it harmed.) lol - public school. Ugh.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

public school. Ugh.
The same public school that you pay to babysit your kids?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Apparently that comment wasn't even worth the time and energy it would have taken her to respond.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

And yet, we argued the point we argued the point here.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The argument that I support "Big Government" because I send my children to public school, from someone who has no children, is NOT something I would be proud I said.

I cannot believe you linked to that.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that as a grown man, you'd reverse your earlier position of mocking public schools to defending the necessity of public schools to babysit your kids because you wish to shirk your responsibility, particularly on one page where the entire thread can be seen at a glance. I expected more of you, but then, you wouldn't be the arrogant ehowton that we've all come to know and love.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

My arrogance pales in comparison to your gall. You have no children. Your opinion means less than nothing where this is concerned. I look very forward to hearing about your choices and struggles and joys when the time comes, but until then, you'd do well to shut the fuck up, and fast.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Can you imagine how sharply the quality and choice of primary schools would to improve if they had to fight for our consumer dollars rather than continuing to get money from us even as they fail to produce?

UNTHINKABLE!

[irulan-amy.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the New Moon score too, but I put the Twilight score on more. I look forward to hearing more of Carter Burwell.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Once all this silliness is done with, I wouldn't mind crafting a single, hour-long "album" of the best of all the scores intertwined.

Hrm...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Desplat. Alexander Desplat. Not Dumas. (I hope to God Desplat never scores The Count of Monte Cristo or I'll really be in dire straits!)

Face + Palm

[quicksilvermad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for a second there, I was wondering when the hell Alexander Dumas composed anything. But I agree with you on the whole "New Moon's score was like a wet sock."

WHORE?

[scott ridenour (from livejournal.com)]

Why when someone in the artistic field does a job solely for money do people like you jump to the "sold out", whored out" or ever so popular "sold his/her soul"?
Honestly have you never taken a job or stayed at a job strictly for the money or benefits? Are you that damned independently wealthy, my guess is no. The man did a popular franchise for the money, exposure and said benefits, not bad considering he only had 2 decent films and music videos to his credit, yet was tapped to direct 1 of the most popular film franchises of the last 10 years.

So please stop with that bullshit.

Re: WHORE?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Another nod to the self-serving "Director's Guild" who shat upon artistic vision and demand their rules to be followed; Robert Rodriguez is the real hero in this scenario.

I think its because we often have expectations of people which exceed reality. Mr. Rodriguez and his ilk are the exception.

Re: WHORE?

[quicksilvermad.livejournal.com]

WHOA, ease up there. It wasn't a serious statement.

Jesus... I've done some work that I have hated myself for doing, but I had to complete the commission to get paid.

You don't know me. So don't start with that bullshit. I don't want to get in a needless argument on my friend's LJ with a complete stranger.

Re: WHORE?

[scott ridenour (from livejournal.com)]

Don't need to know you, just calling you on your statement or quip. As you said you have obviously done the same thing. I like to call it seizing opportunity or plain just paying the bills.
Also, needless argument is what the internet was made for...well that and porn.

Re: WHORE?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Collaboration. I enjoy the internet for collaboration.

Re: WHORE?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

...and porn.

[michelle1963.livejournal.com]

Ahhh Lord of the Rings. You know I started to watch the movie, and I could tell it was going to be beautifully done--however the movie conflicted with the wonderful pictures I'd created in my head when I read the books. I did not watch the movies. The movies are somebody else's pictures.

As far as geekdom..., hmmm aren't all of us somewhat geeky now with PCs, Kindles, cell phones, etc. Yeah, I know most of us aren't programmers, but there was a time when no one had things, and when they began making it onto the consumer scene, people needed classes to learn how to use their PCs. Those younger than 40 can probably barely remember when microchip technology wasn't a part of our lives. Now it's second nature to the newer generations. They're geeky and they don't even know it. :-)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The movies are somebody else's pictures.
You sound like a good candidate for the scores :D

...aren't all of us somewhat geeky now with PCs, Kindles, cell phones, etc.
I don't know. I want to say, "No," because they're all so commonplace now, but I'm still surprised when I find people who live their daily life without its benefits. But if its truly that which has come to pass, then the new "geeks" for example, are those who do things our grandparents would find commonplace as it falls out of fashion in a paradigm reversal, wouldn't you think?


Those younger than 40 can probably barely remember when microchip technology wasn't a part of our lives.
This is frightening and exhilarating both.

[princessleia2.livejournal.com]

I have scores to some movies I've never even seen, Doom springs immediately to mind because I'm a sucker for Clint Mansell (aside: should I actually see this movie? The score was a delight but all reviews of the movie itself fell short of expectations).

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Cutthroat Island is a sappy, feel-good movie that I watch over and over for its GRAND SCORE alone.

*shrug*

Did you end up enjoying The Monastery?

[princessleia2.livejournal.com]

Loved The Monastery :)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

What do you think about the scores to Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I would dare people to try to watch some of their favorite movies - the ones they know all the words to, and see how they "feel" on mute.

The first one that came to mind was The Fifth Element. Sometimes its the lighting, sometimes its the coloring, and sometimes its the cinematography!

[irulan-amy.livejournal.com]

I feel completely ignorant for not realizing that Howard Shore composed the Eclipse score. Wonderful news!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Rectification in process. Please stand by.