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May 06, 2008 April 19, 2008  Mike Oldfield's most recent album, Music of the Spheres, was released in March. It's fantastic, and immediately recalls a "classical" version of Tubular Bells, with a little bit more thematic development and a focus on rich melodies. Mostly orchestral, Spheres hits many of the highlights of Oldfield's career, such as a gorgeous Incantations-flavored bit in "Shabda" and some Ommadawn-style classical guitar virtuosity in "Silhouette." When I heard that Music of the Spheres was to be a "classical" orchestral release, I was ready to be annoyed and bored. Mike's previous experiments with orchestra, a long track on the pleasant-but-inconsequential Voyager and the embarrassing Millennium Bell, were fairly syrupy, dull and underwhelming. But the arrangements on Spheres are uniformly energetic and fresh. I have to say, it was about time Mike did something good. One of my favorite all-around musicians, his last great achievement was Tubular Bells III, which was ten years ago, and I was really worrying that he'd lost his touch. While I loved the electronica flavor of TB III, I thought Mike's subsequent forays into dance music were pretty pathetic, especially 2002's Tres Lunas and 2005's Light + Shade, parts of which sounded dangerously like background music for The Weather Channel. In an unrelated tidbit, the biggest news in the film score community recently is the release, after 23 years, of Jerry Goldsmith's thundering score to Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend. The 3000-copy limited edition sold out within two days, a powerful testament to Goldsmith's continued drawing power. The Baby score is an absolutely classic iteration of the Goldsmith formula: take a crappy genre movie, write a complex, percussive, beautiful score that absolutely puts the movie to shame, and have the movie and score go completely unnoticed. March 30, 2008  As promised, I've produced, shot and edited an online minidocumentary, "The King of America." It features my friend John, who just wrote a book about the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his surprising influence in Washington. The documentary has appeared on Boing Boing and Wonkette, and we had a blast making it. The best version is online at www.thekingofamerica.com, and it's also available in two parts on YouTube. Enjoy! March 06, 2008  My good friend John Gorenfeld's new book, pictured here at the Barnes & Noble in Tribeca, has just been released. Several years in the making, it is the definitive look at the astonishing empire of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and its influence in Washington, and I suggest you pick up your copy at Amazon. John and I spent two weeks in January filming some entertaining promo videos for the book at Moon-related sites in New York and Washington; those videos will be available soon when the promotional effort for the book gets fully underway. March 04, 2008
One of the most amazing stories I have read in a long time is the stunning tale of Love and Consequences, a fake memoir written by a white woman who claimed to have grown up in a black foster family in South Central L.A. The story has many interesting angles, but the one that is most troubling is the idea that you don't even have to put on blackface anymore to have a minstrel show. This woman supposedly snookered the entire New York literary world into believing that she was biracial and had been a gang member. In reality, she grew up in the Valley and, obviously, suffers from some serious problems. The Times posted an excerpt of the book, which is pretty offensive when viewed in light of the fact that it isn't true. Even more amazing is this breathtakingly pompous NPR piece where she talks about growing up in the ghetto.
February 23, 2008
I imagine Pennsylvania law students held extraordinary celebrations when this happened. Sadly, the Rule Against Perpetuities is alive and well on the MBE, which is such a terrible, maligned test that the organization responsible for it has a hilarious "myths and facts" section offering a rather limp defense of it.
January 20, 2008  So there's a new Star Trek movie coming out. There's a teaser trailer for it that actually impressed me. Considering that this new movie is a huge-budget re-envisioning of the franchise set before the first episode of the original series, it got me thinking: One of the more interesting underreported battles in the history of Trek is the one in the late 80s and early 90s between Eileen Roddenberry, Gene's first wife, and Majel Roddenberry, his second wife and the executor of his estate, over whether the 1969 divorce settlement between the original Roddenberrys gave Eileen royalties over future Star Trek projects, or just royalities from profits derived from the original 1966-1969 series. The trial court found that Eileen should get royalties from The Next Generation and Deep Space 9, but not from The Animated Series, the movies, or any Trek merchandising. This was because, the court said, The Next Generation and DS9 were "continuations" of the original TV show. The appellate court, in an oft-cited opinion, determined that Eileen Roddenberry was entitled to royalties from the original TV show only, because the divorce settlement did not contemplate the future projects. (These royalties had amounted to, at the time, "only" $13.8 million.) Here's the court opinion, which amusingly dissects the Trek franchise, and also reveals that Shatner has a small piece of royalities in the original show. So, if I were an enterprising California lawyer, I'd be wondering whether Eileen Roddenberry or her estate would be entitled to a piece of the new movie, considering that it is essentially a remake of the 60s show using the original characters. Under this opinion, the answer is probably no. December 22, 2007  As I make my annual preparations for Life Day, I had a frightening thought: The Star Wars Holiday Special will not enter the public domain until January 1, 2074, assuming that there aren't any more questionably constitutional retroactive copyright extensions. Will it be officially released or re-broadcast before then, and, if not, will anyone in 2074 care about it? I looked up the Copyright Office registrations for the legendary program, and found two funny character copyright registrations, one for "baby wookie," described as having a "ghoulish face with animal's nose and long hair," and one for "grandfather wookie," described as having a "ghoulish face with protruding gums and long hair." December 21, 2007  I spent last weekend in the Iron City of Pittsburgh, PA. Going to a Steelers home game was a pretty amazing ride, even though they lost. I feel like I got my money's worth in terms of Steeler football, however, because it was completely frigid, snowed for most of the game, and I got to experience drunken Steelers fans en masse for four hours. Bonus points go to Jerome Bettis' Grille 36, which we experienced the night before the game. December 09, 2007  Although I wholeheartedly approved of last year's Rocky Balboa, I am decidedly more apprehensive about Rambo, which is dropping during the inauspicious movie month of January. While Rocky Balboa was essentially an update and tribute to the first movie, the plot of Rambo seems to be a tribute to Rambo III instead of First Blood. Still, the street ads pictured above are really exciting, even if Stallone hasn't looked like that since 1985. I don't see how you can have a real Rambo movie without Jerry Goldsmith. |
