ehowton ◾ ◾ Entries tagged withalbum art

2009-01-20 09:00

Why do we adorn books with covers? And I'm talking above and beyond a plain dust jacket - why is there visual information outside of author and title on the cover of books? Is it to draw us in as consumers? As possible customers of that book? Providing new readers a glimpse into that books subject matter, or genre? Perhaps a stylistic outline of the book's content? Makes sense to me. Why then are we told to not judge them by those covers, when its apparent that's *exactly* what they're designed to do?

The answer of course is that we shouldn't judge the worth of something based on its appearance (a philosophical impossibility to be sure), and yet covers on books go out of their way to be judged in order to garner interest enough to be sold. Why are we then told not to judge it by its cover? I discussed this in my Marketing post:

The Last Castle is, to me, a drama. It's about people. It's the plot which tells the story. But on the back cover of the DVD, they show the three scenes in which there was 'action.' You see James Gandolfini holding a gun, Robert Redford ducking for cover with an exploding helicopter in the background, and one other explosion still. Not really indicative of the movie, mind you but if some casual passerby were to glance at it, they might think it was an action-packed movie, and that's just gay.

My wife rec'd Munich as a Mother's Day gift. She had expressed interest in seeing it. Why? Because the commercial spots linked the few 'action' shots back-to-back and made it look like a Robert Ludlum movie come to film. Boy was she disappointed. Screw those people trying to make a buck off a lie. I hope to hell that comes back and bites them in the ass - i.e. they would have sold more to those interested in a docu-drama than an action film, but didn't purchase it because of the crap they released as a trailer. "Piracy is STEALING" the new ad's on DVD's say. Guess what else is stealing? Misrepresenting a movie to get people to buy it!

When I bought The Professional on laserdisc, the tagline from a recent review read, "Makes [the movie] Speed look like a walk to grandmother's house." Well, although I enjoyed The Professional much more than Speed, I felt that not only was that an inaccurate assessment of the movie, it was also misleading to those who watched it based on that. Asses.

I can't imagine that I would ever purchase a CD with a picture of a black ram's head with vampire teeth and the body of a voluptuous woman with gigantic tits stuffed into a police uniform throwing out the peace sign and the word "VAGINA" emblazoned on the cover by a group named 'Puscifer' (sounds like Lucifer) as a cover. I don't listen to that kind of music. I didn't know that it was the solo album of lead singer of Tool nor would that have mattered - I don't listen to Tool either.

Then again, I would be judging a book by its cover.

But isn't that what they want me to do? According to wikipedia, Target and Wal-Mart refused to carry the album based on its cover alone. So what do you think the cover is pandering to? Certainly not my demographic!

So I was up late doing research for a future post, and I had something like 50-tabs open on my browser. One of them had music embedded. WE'RE NEARLY A DECADE INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM! STOP EMBEDDING MUSIC IN YOUR WEB PAGES! Anyway, I didn't want to go searching for it (Safari has a sort of dicked-up tabbing system) so I simply paused my iTunes. As I made my way down the tab list one at a time, I finally reached the page that was playing music. I'd heard the song on repeat a dozen times by now, and its subtle complexity aroused my curiosity. There was no hint as to what was playing, so I had to extract it from the page source. "Queen B" from Puscifer's album V is for Vagina.

I now own the album.

I wonder if their sales soared or were hurt by their particular marketing decision? And yes, I judged this album by its cover. Isn't that what they wanted me to do?

◾ Current Location: 75070
◾ Current Music: Puscifer - V is for Vagina

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2009-01-05 00:35

One of the activities I engaged in over the holidays was taking my wife out for her birthday. On that list was a run to Borders, where she could listen to new music. Borders has those computer stations throughout the store with the bar-code scanner and headphones. For the life of me, I couldn't get the one in soundtracks to work, so I approached the staff, "Pardon me, but I'm trying to listen to this album..."
"...Oh that's so simple, its self-explanatory. Just scan it at the bottom of the monitor, and put the headphones on."

I know to some teen, I'm probably the epitome of old, but the base O/S is Windows for christssake, "Yes, its that part actually, which isn't working." They then proceeded to SHOW me, explaining all the while how very simple it was. How very easy. Of course, it didn't work for them either. "Well, this one doesn't work," they went on to say, and I was led to another kiosk, and once again *shown* how it operated. I tried to not roll my eyes when I thanked them, oblivious to the fact that the errant station was my problem, not the operation of the bar-code scanner, but I digress. You see, that's how I ended up listening to my handful of scores in the Rock/Pop section of the store.

Having grown up in a household where classical and opera was predominantly played, coupled with the fact that all the dumb kids listened to heavy metal in grade school (the same ones who became stoners and drop-outs in high school, still wearing their black death metal T-shirts) I always abhorred heavy metal, and those who listened to it. From my perspective, it was quite obvious. Only later in life, as an adult, did I find highly-intelligent people who listened to metal. It was one of those life-changing events, shaking the very core of my beliefs. Could they simply be musically immature? Wasn't classical and opera the pinnacle of musical development? Or...was I missing something? Could that be possible?

I listened on and off to various suggestions and bands on and off along this path - to be honest, I couldn't tell one song from another. It amused me to think that these people probably thought the same of Beethoven and Mozart. But there I was, standing in the Rock/Pop section, scanning the covers from which to judge the contents by, and I saw what looked like a Sarah Brightman or Enya cover (albeit with a more primal expression on her face), with oddly out-of-place heavy metal font usage. Curious, I scanned it in and gave it a listen. It was definitely metal, but the lead singer had an operatic voice, speaking to me like Brünnhilde from a Wagnerian piece. I wasn't quite riveted, as all that noise seemed to get in the way, but my curiosity was certainly piqued. The cover had a sticker on it proclaiming it a solo album from the lead-singer of the group Nightwish. I found and previewed a sampling of their discs, then picked up EVERYTHING.

I even made a compilation for my dad, of some of the more operatic pieces.

Guess what?

He liked it.

So yeah, heavy metal. Usually when I use that term, I'm referring to the Elmer Bernstein film score. I immediately called two people on my FL who I know enjoy this type of music to witness to them. To share the Good News.

Color me surprised.

Tarja Turunen, former lead singer of Nightwish

◾ Current Location: 75409
◾ Current Music: Barry - Thempendium

◾ Tags:

album art,
music

2008-12-02 08:15

TERMINATOR: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to be released today!

( Track Listing & Preview Clips )

◾ Current Location: 75070
◾ Current Music: Excelsior!

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2008-05-11 22:40

I'd never heard of Michael Giacchino prior to The Incredibles and my hands-down favorite Pixar movie came with an incredible and unexpected gift: A score unlike anything I'd heard in many years. A sound which not only fit the movie perfectly, but was able to capture the spirit of spy films with a fresh, updated sound. Nothing I've heard of his since has touched me the way this score has. When the album was released I'd read how Pixar had tried to get John Barry to score it, and that Michael had simply borrowed from the genre to create his sound.

But how do we really validate that it was a success?

Growing up my father had this double-album by Roland Shaw and His Orchestra - The Return of James Bond in "Diamonds are Forever" and other Secret Agent Themes that I enjoyed throughout every level of my musical development, as it never went out of style (though it does admittedly sound *slightly* dated now). That big band jazz sound playing a plethora of secret agent themes from not only the James Bond movies, but also the popular television shows during the spy heyday never really gets old does it? Knowing my love for this particular album, about a year ago, my father had it converted to MP3:

( Track Listing )

Driving to my folks this weekend for Mother's Day, I slipped the disc in the player. My son asked, "Is this fireplace music?"
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Fireplace music." He repeated. I was perplexed, so started down my normal path (

schpydurx is intimately familiar with this routine...)
"We have a fireplace, son, but there's no music involved." I offered.
"No, is this music for fireplaces?" My eight-year old tries to clarify.
"What makes you ask?"
"It sounds like when you make a fire in the fireplace."

I finally get it. You see, the first track is the worst for the pops associated with needles and records - after that, it smoothes out considerably. His age does not include any information whatsoever about LP's pressed on vinyl; the nearest association was the crackling of wood on the fireplace when I build a fire.

My father played a variety of music while I was growing up, but the majority of it was classical, broadway, and scores. I am no different. We were about halfway through the album when my son asks, "Dad, is this The Incredibles?"

Well done, Mr, Giacchino.

You have been validated.

◾ Current Location: 75409
◾ Current Music: Roland Shaw and His Orchestra - The Return of James Bond

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2008-04-21 18:49

Doing what I said could never be done (and still managing to miss quite a bit, I'm sure) I decided to catalog my music this weekend after moving my media out of the bedroom. At over 2000 physical CD's just writing them down was laborious, not to mention arranging them by genre (and, in cases of my classical music by label) then alphabetically and typing everything up....well, exhausting. I spent two days doing this. Separating my musicals from my soundtracks from my scores first, and only then deciding to add what I have in iTunes.

*sigh*

At 80GB of songs, most of them scores, that genre is my lowest ratio, physical vs. digital, sitting at about 1:1. This turned out to be more time intensive than I ever wanted. And no, I didn't want to export my iTunes database into XML, import it into a spreadsheet and reformat it. Bah! So what will likely be a GRAND LIST will ultimately never be updated and shortly after its publication, languish in obscurity forever.

But that's nothing. When I was in Germany in 1990, I met a man who had THREE-THOUSAND COMPACT DISCS - all of them soundtracks. IN NINETEEN-NINETY! That's crazy to think about!

Then there's John Williams.

When I was but a boy in shortpants, there were only two film composes I knew: John Barry, and John Williams.

And Mr. Williams brought the world Star Wars.

In 1977 I saw Star Wars an unprecedented (even today) NINE TIMES in the theater and we stood in line to purchase the double-LP at the music store. It was all black, with a barely visible shadow of Darth Vader's helmet on it. It opened up between the two records to show stills from the film. Luke Skywalker was my hero, and John Williams made him come to life more than Mark Hamill ever did. My father had one of those "Reader's Digest" stereo systems back in the day that he ran his 4-track through. So when the entire soundtrack was simulcast in Dallas for the uninterrupted network television premiere, he recorded that as well. Just listening to Vader breath in stereo in a day when movies weren't yet being released on media. The man could do no wrong.

I "ooohed" and "aaahed" in all the right places with Close Encounters, Superman was a mighty step back in the right direction (and gives me goosebumps even today) but my attention was caught once again with Raiders of the Lost Ark! That wonderful Williams sound. I remember it like it was yesterday - the thrill that ran through the theater. Wow.

Then the dry spell.

He was busy with other things, I was busy with other things.

Ten years of...well, nothing notable that made an impact on me.

In 1993 I was TDY to MacDill Air Force Base supporting USCENTCOM, and voraciously reading, and watching movies at the high-end Hyde Park theater, as U.S. Servicemen could get a ticket any time of the day for $2. This particular week, I'd seen a lot of Jurassic Park plushies and lunchboxes at the mall. Must be a new kids movie out I thought. I JUST ABOUT SHIT MYSELF WHEN THAT T-REX RAISED HIS HEAD AND SCREAMED THE FIRST TIME!

The next day I made a beeline to the mall, bought the cassette and listened to it over and over and over. I put the CAV version laserdisc on 6-month pre-order, sent the cassette to my father when I bought the CD (he blew out his speakers with the first track) and hosted a Jurassic Park viewing party when I returned home from Saudi (thanks to

photogoot for picking it up for me while I was overseas).

Dual of the Fates was the next item which impressed me as he reprised his role in the Star Wars franchise, but the opening strains of Harry Potter once again confirmed for me that he still had it, and why I've always loved this man. The way he can make me feel a certain emotion, with just his mind, is amazing.

Sure there's a string of dull compositions in-between that I just cannot sink my teeth into, and though I cannot wax intelligent on this matter like

swashbuckler332, no name in film music, I bet, is known to those outside its fanbase, than John Williams. I've pre-ordered Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at amazon.com for an amazing price of $9.99 and I fully expect to be blown away, once again.

◾ Current Location: 75409
◾ Current Music: Barry - The Black Hole

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2008-01-23 17:02

Never have I heard such scathing words over an adult contemporary singer. Marilyn Manson? Sure. Sarah Brightman? You wouldn't think so, but there it is. Most reviews I've read are either hot or cold. People hate her or people love her. Very few are indifferent. To me, she's a guilty pleasure. I enjoy what she brings to the table - her range and arrangements. As a classical music/opera lover, she appeals to that side of me. The last decade or so has brought us other "crossover" glamor babes such as the group Bond or Opera Babes but none with quite the class nor finesse of Ms. Brightman. And she doesn't just add an electronic drum beat to a classical piece as her contemporaries are wont to do - she uses her vocal range as an instrument, often switching between her classically-trained operatic voice and adult contemporary entertainer.

Recently, Amazon.com sent me an unsolicited email hawking her new release, Symphony (due out January 29). I made my way down to their preview samples section (I love the day and age in which we live) and sampled all. "Fleurs Du Mal" my favorite, as it sounds operatic, and "I Will Be With You (Where The Lost Ones Go)" my least favorite, because if I wanted to listen to some guy I don't know sing...

I have the physical media to Phantom of the Opera (Highlights), Time to Say Goodbye, Eden, and La Luna. Eden is by far my favorite of those three - I think because its more up-tempo than the other two. I found Time to Say Goodbye too heavy-handed. I missed Classics and Harem though I noticed they were both on my "Recommended For You" list. Choosing to try-before-I-buy, I torrented her discography and discovered something which most of you are probably already familiar with: Dive. Wow! How did I miss this? 1993. I had just arrived to Langley AFB and was doing a LOT of traveling. What a fantastic album! So yeah, now I'm pumped about Sarah again. Maybe I'll pre-order Symphony.

◾ Current Location: 75409
◾ Current Music: Brightman - Discography

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2007-06-19 02:08

Sure I bought the CD because the winged chick has big boobs. Who says sex doesn't sell? Either way, its a fantastic album! I was walking around Fry's looking for something EXACTLY like this to listen to. Granted I bought it blind, but I sometimes do that, and in this case, I'm glad I did. I require more CD cover art with large-breasted women on them. Call me shallow. I've listened to the album at least half a dozen times today.

Finished up my mindterm installation. I shelved it for a couple of weeks, but something recently has come up where I need it. I've been waiting for this a long time, and if it works...wow. I'm hoping it uses http protocol via ssh on the server side only and doesn't try to port local ssh out via http. We'll see. I test it tomorrow. For those of you have accounts, you can find it on http://darkvoyager.com Just follow the Mindterm link. I'm unsure I'll be able to quickly re-create my work once I stand up my new Solaris 10 box - the certification of public keys was a real bitch.

I suppose now, with that under my belt, I ought to try and fix ampache. I still can't get it to catalog my NFS mounted songs from my OSX box.

I'm up much too late. I even outlasted

drax0r My wife is up watching Buffy on DVD and I don't have a car tomorrow. Her's is still in the shop (we're up to $500 so far) and she needs mine to go pick up the kids tomorrow. I'll be carpooling with drax0r - whenever that may be. He's not what you'd call an, "Early riser."

◾ Current Location: 75409
◾ Current Music: N3: Ninty-Nine Nights

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2007-04-19 16:39

Not bad at all. I don't exactly know what it is about it. Wikipedia classifies it as 'electrogoth' and iTunes imports it as 'industrial.' I disagree with the latter, so...electrogoth it is! I think the elements I enjoy about this album can all be attributed to recall of memories. Its reminiscent of both the bands I used to hear haunting the club scene in Germany when I was over there, but with the addition of having an 80's sound to it. With that, might I suggest

ximo give it a listen if he's not already familiar with them. I'd have to listen to them back-to-back with VNV Nation before comparing the two, but looky, I've already gone and drawn a similarity betwixt the two.

Rec'd my T-60. I didn't have a copy of XP which contained the SATA driver required for the harddrive, so I retained the SOE and simply modified the registry entries and services.msc to cull out the unneeded horseshit which usually plagues such an installation. Besides, it was easier to keep all the IBM specific software which was already contained within the operating system. Its a rather large form factor. Not as bulky as those massive Inspiron laptops Dell sells, but nowhere near the portability of the X1 I've grown accustomed to, either. The good news, I suppose, is that this machine has a 2.0GHz CoreDuo processor, and 2GB of RAM. I've been playing with a combination of Parallels Workstation (similar to VMware) & dual-booting to put an alternate O/S on this machine. I'd prefer Parallels to mitigate a reboot, and I have the RAM for it, but I'm having issues with the SATA driver. In the meantime, I'm downloading kubuntu 7.0.4 for giggles; we'll run everything off that and see what's what.

The time grown near, and yet, here I sit, no further along. I felt a great sense of foreboding the other day. An unease settling quickly upon me, the gravity of everything finally coming to me. Leaving

galinda822, questioning my own abilities where this new position fits in, selling the house, relocating my family, juggling once again everything I juggle when I I go through this...then I realized I was just getting sick. I went to the doctor, he put me on narcotics for a couple of days and I slept. I slept like the dead. Slight fever last night, but when I awoke, I knew I would emerge victorious. I always do.

Working my last day of work tomorrow. A full day as the Site Service Delivery Manager. Then, I turn in my badge and drive to Wichita to pick up little girl, returning home the next morning. It greatly interferes with my Friday Night Movie Night and, if all continues to go as planned, what would have been our last. I've packed up all but 64 of my Cd's, those remaining in a travel case until I relocate. I'll take those with me to Wichita. Another 14-hours on the road this weekend...

Lost my love, lost my land
Lost the last place I could stand
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity
And you can't take the sky from me.

◾ Current Location: 63114
◾ Current Music: Batman Begins

◾ Tags:

album art,
music

2007-03-08 16:50

Saved the day late last night when the Project Manager working overnight with the vendor to migrate a system from Solaris 2.5.1 to Windows Server 2003 noticed the hardware changed from differential SCSI to Single Ended and they didn't have the right terminator. I was able to come up with a 50-pin terminator which, upon delivery the Project Manager announced, "I will never again make fun of you for being a unix geek." What can I say, I'm a hardware pack rat.

drax0r thought that Teen Wolf was Back to the Future II.

We've recently switched teleconferencing vendors and I'm sitting in the boardroom eating the last meeting's left over muffins with

galinda822 while we're "troubleshooting" video quality by dancing like monkey's in front of the high-definition camera. This is mostly boring, but it does give me time to post, and anything which needs to be done is more fun doing with

galinda822.

I accidentally added a misspelled word to my personal dictionary in Firefox. After I discovered how to back this out, I noticed several other words I had accidentally added as well. Further investigation reveals that in the Firefox spell check menu, 'Add to dictionary' is directly under the suggested words. This is not a problem unless the word is so close that there is only one suggestion, making it quite easy to accidentally add the word instead of correct it. I now have a file in my home directory with these instructions in case this happens again, and I'm sure it will.

Recently had a conversation with

crowy concerning the movie Madagascar. My wife always felt that the 'psychotic penguins' were the embodiment of myself,

drax0r, and our two other co-workers, Bill & Mississippi. I was asked, "Which one does your wifethink you are, Eric?"

Predominately, Bill transcends the role of "Skipper", though he and Mississippi both could vie for the "Rico" role, and while Mississippi, drax0r and I all have our "Kowalski" moments, that role in her mind is Mississippi through-and-through. That leaves drax0r as "Rico," and myself as "Private." Its not flattering, but we accomplish much together as a team.

I noticed that the new 2008 Altima Coupe seems to based upon the current Infinity G35.

They opened the new Chiptole close to my house today. Mr. Cluck got a free burrito. I envy his burrito. 50 hours so far this week. I require sleep.

◾ Current Location: 63134
◾ Current Music: Man of La Mancha 1965 Original Cast Recording

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2006-06-10 15:29

Want to take the kids to see Cars this weekend. Don't know if I'll get a chance. I know the theater will be packed with screaming children, and that will make me angry. And that they'll tag-team me for restroom breaks. Still, I'd love to take them. We downloaded the HD trailers a couple of days ago and watched them over and over.

Once upon a time, during in Air Force days, my roommate had recently gotten married, and his wife's arrival was pending. She would need a car. He needed something cheap. I suggested - just for a test drive, just in case it wasn't as bad as we assumed it was - the Geo Metro. I'm in the back seat, my roommate is driving, and the salesman is in the passenger seat. As we're driving, I ask the gentleman, "What's that on the right front fender?"
He takes a look out the windshield, but doesn't see anything.
I point this time, "That thing protruding from the right fender, what is that?"
He moves and strains to see it, but cannot.
"That metal whip, secured in the fender," I say, "What is it?"
He sees it, and turns to me, confused and answers, "The antenna?"
"Yes!" I proclaim. "That's right!"
The salesman is now looking at me as if I might be retarded.
"What is that for?" I ask him.
Now, pretty much convinced I'm stupid, says very slowly, "The radio?"
"WHAT RADIO!?" I nearly scream, as the car is not equipped with one.
Nice. He didn't buy the car.

Loaded Windows Vista (the Longhorn replacement) on an X1 and will be playing with that all week. Our group test-upgraded to Office 2003 prior to the migration to our users, and I lost my office bar. Office 2003 doesn't have an office bar. I know a lot of people hate the office bar, and many don't use it. I rarely care what "other people" do, or do not do. I liked it. I used it daily. However, in a fantastic turn of events, the Microsoft knowledgebase article written concerning the absence of the office bar in Office 2003 running on XP, (and I quote:)

The Office Shortcut Bar is not available in Microsoft Office 2003. However, you can use the Start menu in Microsoft Windows XP to start an Office program or to open a file or a folder. Additionally, you can use the Quick Launch bar in Windows XP or in Microsoft Windows 2000 to start an Office program or to open a file or a folder.

I wish I could slap someone at Microsoft for releasing that ignorant "Summary." Do they think I'm stupid?

So, sitting in the boardroom yesterday, I notice that my CEO is wearing a pink tie, with a pink shirt? I never would have done that. But he is a very distinguished, powerful man. Today - what the hell, I too show up with pink-on-pink. So far half a dozen people have mentioned to me, "Hey, the CEO wore pink and pink yesterday too..." The king looks like the piss-boy!

galinda822 came over for movie night, and the three of finally watched Office Space. I think I was the only one who enjoyed it, unfortunately. We followed that up with the first half of the mini-series Revelations, a galinda suggestion. It was quite good.

Took the kids to see Cars this morning. I expected the worst, and the wife even tried to talk me out of it. Boy was I surprised. I took a page out of the book of my dad and went to the first showing. There were maybe, 10 other people in there. I couldn't believe it. A nearly empty theater on a weekend opening show. Furthermore (and this really is hard to believe) neither of the children had to go to the bathroom for the duration of the full-two hour movie! And yes, it was good, on many different levels.
( mild spoilers here )

Was drinking my coffee this morning when my wife announces, "Oh, and your CD came in yesterday."
"WHAT! WHAT! WHAT? Hell woman, why didn't you mention this before?"
"I just remembered."
I snatched it out of her hands and ripped it into iTunes, read the liner notes, and made a copy for the car. I've been listening to it all day. it's very good, and as promised, a scan of Bear McCreary's autograph:

Drinking Pilsner Urquell...

◾ Current Music: Battlestar Galactica: Season Two soundtrack

◾ Tags:

2006-06-05 15:07

I have an immediate need for all four Alien scores, and I have

swashbuckler332 to thank for this. After reading swashbuckler's revisited mix album, it dawned on me I didn't actually own any of the soundtracks! All my Alien music is on Telarc discs - bits and pieces you understand. Thus begins my quest.

Apparently, the first film is out of print. Damn. The horrifically commuted "Alien Trilogy" soundtrack looks like crap, but I did find the 1999 release DVD which contains the full score as a separate audio track on the DVD for under $10 at Amazon. Thanks for the heads up, again, swashbuckler!

The second film comes in a remastered 'second edition' score which I will have to sneak by the wife to purchase, and the third film will be a sneak as well. I figure in a month I might have them all. I can get away with ordering the DVD because I have the middle two films on laserdisc, and she wants me to replace all my laserdiscs with DVD's. THAT'S going to be a chore. I'll probably never get rid of my Matrix laserdisc - one of the final releases on that media.

The fourth film's score is $4 used on Amazon. Wow.

I'm a little obsessive this way, you know.

And I'm now going to go out and purchase Homeworld 2, a game I've never before played, based on THIS alone. If you still don't get it, watch the trailer. Wow. Also, Firefly writer Jane Espenson will be writing an episode for BSG Season Three. Wow again. I don't know how I'm going to be able to contain myself until all this goodness comes to fruition. Click the image for a direct link to the trailer:

Rec'd a nice gift this past weekend,

galinda822 apparently tired of hearing be bitch about not having Office Space to watch with her...bought me the Special Edition release! Woo-hoo; now we're cooking with fire! Perhaps we'll get a chance to watch it together during Friday's Movie Night? Thanks galinda! I'll grill up something special for the occation ;)

◾ Current Location: 63134

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2006-05-21 18:30

Cancelled my order with Amazon on BSG:Season Two score. Placed an order with La-La-Land Records (the label) who ship 10 days earlier and, autographed by the composer! For all you non-soundtrack types, that would be Bear McCreary, who took over from and worked with Richard Gibbs of the mini-series. What might you expect to hear on this second season album? Here are my notes on the few preview tracks provided:

Remember the documentary of the Galactica by Lucy Lawless? Remember the theme music of the clip they showed? It was the 70's original theme. It's included here on the first track as Colonial Anthem

There's an Allegro on track five which is in the same orchestral style of, and contains some of the same bars as our past favorites The Face of the Shape to Come and Passacaglia.

Track eight, Pegasus at first sounds kinda gay, like 'Endless Love' until I remembered the scene where they first discovered Pegasus and everyone was disembarking onto Galactica; very exciting suddenly as I filled with the emotion of the moment.

Lords of Kobol is the first vocal track (track 9) on the disc and as is all their vocal tracks, in some foreign tongue - but nothing like the mini-series fav To Kiss or Not to Kiss, harder, and with more force. Oh, and electric guitars too. Pretty cool, it was from the episode 'Pegasus' but I couldn't place it.

So Roslin and Adama (track 13) starts off simply with solo synth piano and a solo violin. It adds a couple of acoustic guitars and maybe a cello which crescendo's into something reminiscent of Firefly. Pretty cool.

Prelude to War (track 17) is a very fast-paced piece with violins, snare drums (on nearly all battle themes) and bigger drums. Here Bear goes back to his ethnic drum line but the addition of the snare rolls behind the frantic violins makes it very exciting.

Track 18 (Reuniting the Fleet) is the same Irish-themed track (6) on Season One (A Good Lighter) with the addition of drums, snare, and a bass.

Black Market is a middle-eastern-esque piece which starts with classical guitar and ends with electric guitar and drums. This is the last track, track 23.

I for one, can't wait!

Here's the link for your own copy and to give the preview tracks a listen!

Updated Firefox on teh max0r which fixed the gif viewing issue.

Watched Ultimate Avengers with my son, which was pretty damn good. I wasn't planning on actually paying attention when I put it on for him, but it was great.

Wrote a little script and made a cron entry on xirr to rotate my banner picture on LiveJournal.

Grilled chicken.

galinda822 came for a nice visit.

Mowed the lawn.

Played countless hours of Hot Wheels with my boy.

Brought all primary systems down at J:42 yesterday and swapped the master bedroom and the office. Miraculously, my clock started working again and everything was back up by 1900.

Installed a new MFP for my wife on the XP uber-box, and shared it out only to discover that OSX can only connect to OSX-shared printers. I assume the same can be said for connecting it to teh max0r and trying to connect to it via XP.

For the first time in a month, considering going to be at 2200 so I can be well rested for my day tomorrow. I haven't played DS2 in a week, nor even cracked my new Strategy Guide...

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