Post-tonal Theory

Ooooo, I haven't updated in a loooong time!

I'm going to have a debate next week in my post-tonal theory class in regards to this topic:

"That which is identified as 'atonal music' should be promoted and performed."

I am con, even though I wanted to be pro... my poor heart. :P But it gives me a chance to look at both sides of this.. I would say.. musically-controversial statement. You think about it for a bit and I will provide my personal insight next week.

Bye!

She wore bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue velveeeeeeeet................

Little Poseidon talk

I’ve been learning a lot from my film classes lately, and the idea of remakes always bugged me. Why do them? Well, the main reason is obviously spectacle; studios now have better technology and they can make King Kong look more realistic, along with the plane crash and island scenes. However, when you only concentrate on the visual spectacle, you leave out a lot of important things such as the emotional interaction between characters. Things such as motifs and symbols become lost and the story is simple and filtered. I started thinking about this after watching The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 1972).

As much as this was a funny disaster film to watch (for my generation at least), there is a lot of symbolism along with the conflict of authority and religion. It’s not something you typically think about when you want to watch a disaster film... maybe that’s why this film was nominated for so many Academy Awards. It was just filled with human sympathy and religion. If you followed the Reverend, you would be safe. If you followed the ship authorities, you would die. Um, yikes? The cinematography used to establish the two on different levels is also interesting.

I’m not sure I want to see the new Poseidon (Wolfgang Petersen, 2006). I saw a clip where the ship was tipping from the wave, and looking at all the new technology made me feel uncomfortable. The way the ship was controlled, the elevators, etc... it just seemed too exaggerated. And I hear the film lacks the human connection from the 1972 version. So, you get your spectacular visuals, but lack of everything else. Well... maybe I should watch it to see if there’s any symbolism, but I doubt they will be religious. Just had to spill that out. :P

Oh! For some reason, I found it HILARIOUS that John Williams scored the 1972 Poseidon film! Anything he does post-Star Wars gets me curious for some odd reason...

Pop-tarts!

Yaay, I'm back home for the holidays... no more classes or exams for quite a while... such a good feeling. I can now catch up to my reading, and I know I'll have LOADS to post after I go through them.

But, of course, being back for Christmas means I have to be careful about over-eating. In the past few months, I've become a health nut and exercising a lot more.. however.. I was unable to foresee my newest obsession...

POP-TARTS!! Yeh, I am a little late.. and I have no excuse.

When I was a little girl, my older sister would eat these every morning. I think I ate a few, but I was never fascinated by them, partly because they were in boring flavours like "Strawberry" and "Blueberry".

So, obviously, the main reason Pop-tarts are so popular is because NOW they come in all these fun flavours... Smores, Chocolate Fudge, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Hot Fudge Sundae.. aaand the list goes on. They're just sooo fun to eat and even collect.. like Pocky! The only smart thing Kellogg's can do is continue making crazy flavours, like "Neapolitan Nonsense".. ooor "Tropical Zing"... they should just keep going!

I think the main reason I got into them was because my diet is very boring... Pop-tarts and their bright-coloured boxes make me happy now. :) I wish they kept making the one that's below!!

Movie palaces!!

Here's ONE reason why I wish I was born in the first half of the twentieth century.

People got to watch films in THESE kind of venues!!! I bet the floors weren't sticky either. I got the first image from this website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~angell/thsa/gl-levin.html. Be sure to check it out! Lots of other beautiful pictures, including exteriors!

German Expressionism

This week, in my Film History class, we have been learning about German Expressionism in film. My God... I am SO interested in this movement now.

We watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Weine, 1920) and I was completely in awe with the buildings, windows and scenery. I find it ever so fascinating that, even after WWI, the rise of Hollywood, and the Treaty of Versailles, German filmmakers were still able to express themselves without others automatically identifying their films as Nazi propaganda. Just look at the detail in the pic above! Even the ceiling looks like it has a mind of its own! :P

What bothers me (you know.. just a TINY bit..) is the lack of information regarding film music during this movement. I mean... they must've had some accompaniment, right? This film was made in 1920... it was young, but definitely there. I'm currently reading Miguel Mera and David Burnand's "European Film Music". I finished reading the first chapter that had to deal with film music in Germany, but only during 1927-1945, so it's practically all about Nazi propaganda. Not one thing about expressionism, which developed in the early 20s.

Hmm.. yah, that actually bugs me quite a bit. BUUUUT....

I'm going to borrow Metropolis from the library and watch it during (Canadian) Thanksgiving!! Yay! I hear Gottfried Huppertz's score is mind-blowing. :)

Back to school!

COFFEE!!!!!! I've gotten into the habit of drinking coffee on my most dreadful day of the week... Wednesdays. Why hump day? I have SEVEN courses on the day. Yikes! It's because I took Film History as a non-music elective. My father suggested I drop it, and it would've made my term a bit easier, but honestly... the stress is worth it. Because I want to be a film composer, I have decided to take as many film studies courses as possible... I want to learn as MUCH about the history of film (beginning to now) as I can. It fascinates me so... almost as much as music (but not quite there!). The other film course I'm taking is Hitchcock and Modernity, which I find interesting because we are looking at not only Hitchcock's popular works, but also at his very early works.. before he moved to Amerrr-i-ca! All of this is amazing.

I just wanted to blab since I haven't posted on here in so long. Hmmm.. what else can I talk about...

I LOOOOOOVE THE MARX BROTHERS!! They made my summer very enjoyable. I watched a LOT of early films during my summer break, and the first Marx Brothers film I came across was 'A Night at the Opera'. It was the first film that I borrowed that centered around comedy, so I was quite surprised at its liveliness. Jokes were told here and there.. I almost couldn't keep up! It got me interested, and I watched a few more... the most recent I saw was 'Monkey Business' which had me on the floor. I'm going to save up some money to buy this -->> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002MHDYW/ref=wl_it_dp/102-3849476-1368960?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1CYGK29FBJ8Z2&colid=SMLA43BWOL1G <<-- because it's so damn worth it. Also, I recently learned how to compose for Harp, so Harpo's instrument solo is always a pleasure to watch.. he uses a lot of extended techniques! :D

Elton John

Taken from Perezhilton.com. Don't laugh. :P

“The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision. It’s just a means to an end. We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet. I mean, get out there - communicate. Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet. Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging. I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span. There’s too much technology available. I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today. I don’t have a mobile phone or an iPod or anything. I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano. In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic. Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality. And there are more albums released each week now than there were then.”
- Elton John

Amen!

I work at a movie theatre during the summer, and the guys decided to play a CD with different "current" music (Rihanna, Mika, lots of emo, etc.)... I was going to barf because almost every song was similar to each other in chord progessions and lyrical structure. Come on people.. can you at least TRY to think up some groundbreaking music instead of looking at the pile of green on your desk?