Meme with music sharing.

[amanuensis1]

Tagged by dien!

List five songs you are currently digging.

a. Confrontation With Count Dooku and Finale, John Williams, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones soundtrack. John Williams rules. The AotC soundtrack is the only one of the six SW films whose finale does not end with the traditional "Dum, DUM! Da-da-da-dum!" notes of triumph. Go listen. It ends with the softest slip of Princess Leia's Theme, and underneath is the deepest, you'll-miss-it-if-you-have-the-wrong-settings-on-your-sound-system bass line of those nine distinctive notes of Darth Vader's Theme. It stays in a minor key. Goosepimples EVERY time.

b. Royal Courtship, by Al Stewart, A Beach Full of Shells. Yes, "Year of the Cat" Al Stewart. He just put out this album earlier this year. It sold itself to me when I heard a snippet of Gina In the King's Road (and that's really the one you should go hear)--but this track has a word in it you rarely see outside a few texts--and I've certainly never heard it as a lyric. The song begins: "I sent my major-domo to your amanuensis/ To ascertain your feelings, and strip away pretenses..." Yes, I was totally tickled.

c. I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme), John Rzeznik, Treasure Planet soundtrack. A lot of people have heard me lament how underrated this film is, in the canon of Disney films. It's marvelous, and this sequence featuring Jim and Silver (and Jim's flashback to his absent father) works perfectly for this song.

d. If Only, Fiction Plane, Holes soundtrack. Those of you who read the Newberry-award-winning Holes by Louis Sachar and then saw the film may know that it's one of those book-to-film translations that works wonderfully. Helps that Sachar wrote the screenplay himself. I love this reworking of the little folk song that runs through Sachar's story.

e. The Drunken Piper, Natalie MacMaster, Women of the World: Celtic II. I never get tired of modern Celtic music. This one's the first track on the album for a reason.

Comments

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

*screwed up the last link, sorry* *longs for editing capability of comments*

Are you a member of audiography? The theme of last week's posts was our top 5 songs at the moment. This post would fit right in.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I freakin' LOVE Al Stewart. Especially some of his lesser-known songs. I am psyched to hear these!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not, but I should check it out! Thanks!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, my god, GET this new album. "Royal Courtship" is actually one of my least-favorites on the album, music-wise, but you see why I couldn't not link that one here. ^_^ The opening track, "The Immelman Turn," is wonderful; it's my favorite along with "Gina In the King's Road."

[satanbaker.livejournal.com]

I really liked Treasure Planet. :D Went and saw it in the dollar theatre when it first came out.

And Holes is good? I really liked the book, and when the movie came out I was kind of wary... *snort* But the fact that the screenplay was written by the author does say good things for a movie.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's a great adaptation. Everyone's splendid in it, and all three timelines come together so well. I especially love the cameo of Eartha Kitt as Madame Zeroni!

[satanbaker.livejournal.com]

Sounds awesome. :D I'll have to look for it next time we get movies.

[(Anonymous)]

You thought Holes worked? I thought the book was a hoot, but the movie was pure Hollywood: get rid of the awkward fat kid and replace him with the slick, slim, acne-free Nick-at-Niter of the week. The only way that could have been more insulting is if Stanley was played by Gary Sinese and had Amazing CGI fat.

[tocada.livejournal.com]

omg, Yoko Kanno is even better than John Williams!
sorry, it made me remember about this one comic in which JW seemed to 'draw' some 'tips' from Yoko's music. The weird mind processes I have x'D

[rectpropagation.livejournal.com]

the slick, slim, acne-free Nick-at-Niter of the week

Shia is not a Nick-at-Niter of the week! Shia LaBeouf was Disney! Ya betta recognize!

I know that was random but I couldn't resist.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Wow, these are all quite good. I'm most impressed with the Natalie MacMaster song, as I'd never heard her before.

Now I want to put up my favorites for people, but my tastes are so weird that I doubt they'd make sense to anyone else...

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

Whee, music! *downloads all*

I'm especially thankful for the last one. :) I love Celtic music but I've listened to very little of it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Here's what was up with that. (This is on the DVD extras in interviews.) Sachar realized, along with the director and who-all, that the role of Stanley was quite physically demanding. Ideally to stay true to the book, they'd have had to cast a young actor who was overweight and make him slim down and shoot all scenes in sequence, or have a slim actor bulk up and shoot in a reverse timeline. Owing to the ensemble cast's needs and such, shooting in sequence was not feasible and because of the difficult physical demands Sachar decided to discard Stanley's weight issue as a plot point. He did not sound, in the interviews, as if it was a casual decision for him, but he did think it would have made the creation of the film difficult if not impossible.

So if the issue of Stanley's weight rang especially key for the reader, I agree that that's going to bias a viewing of the film. Might make one think the translation of book to film failed. I felt much more at peace with it after I heard Sachar's interviews.

[(Anonymous)]

My bad. Holla!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Okay, then, I should check out Yoko Kanno, whom I don't know! Thanks for giving me more music to discover...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ooh, but it's fun to discover new stuff! Go fer it, I say.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Modern Celtic recordings are some of my favorite music. Anything that labels itself as "Celtic Rock" will especially get my notice!

[twistingflame.livejournal.com]

Oooh, pretty! Love the Al Stewart stuff.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

So glad you did! (Ooh, pretty icon.)

[tocada.livejournal.com]

Omg, you don't know her! That's so lovely. Unless you've seen at least one anime for which she's written the OST and you don't know it.
I specially rec the OST of Cowboy Bebop, it doesn't seem to bore me, no matter how many times I play it ♥

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the music! Ahh, Star Wars. It's so strange. I LOVE the music. I love the story that the music tells. I even love the story Lucas tells. I just can't stand the manner in which he tells it. >_

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It makes complete sense, it does. I even like the stories told in Eps 1 & 2 (though not 3!)--I just hate the way they were told in film. But the music, oh.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I like all the stories. They're sweeping and epic. It makes me so sad thinking of what might have been if Lucas had been a better director and gotten someone who can WRITE to do the screenplay. Makes me want to write fanfic. To fix things. :)

Very belatedly catching up on my flist...

[ladynutmeg.livejournal.com]

EEEE!!!!! Someone else who likes Treasure Planet!!!! EEEEE!!!!! And that SONG. *goes off and does the happy dance and wants to listen to it again*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! Looking forward to hearing these.

Re: Very belatedly catching up on my flist...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I love, love, LOVE Treasure Planet. WHY was it not more popular? Weren't there enough characters to appeal to the little kidlets, you think? Jim is rather a teenager, and it's a serious story, so, I'm thinking that might have been part of it. But I'm still boggling at its not being considered one of the successful Disney films. It's so far above Brother Bear and Home on the Range, I'm miserable that it's being given the label of "lesser later Disney films." Gnyagh.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, my pleasure! Enjoy!