TMT: Chagrin Eve
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time, a series that was begun here. Not everything happens in the distant past. Movies and life…
Same Song, Different Movie: Wheel of Fortune by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss
This entry examines one of the classic pop songs of the 50s. In fact, this version of Wheel of Fortune, written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss, is the cover song of the 1951 original performed by American jazz singer Johnny Hartman. Kay Starr’s stirring number out a year later was given a special verve by the versatile pop and jazz singer in her rendition. Her biggest hit, #1 for 10 weeks, tied together two critically acclaimed film adaptations, each of whom lost out big time come awards season, fourteen years apart.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Film Review
A brand spanking new year and the end of the month (and Superbowl) is here. Almost. The (nearly) last day in January means it’s time once more to…
The Soundtrack of My Life – The 60s
My local colleague Arlee Bird from Tossing It Out broached a meme a few years back that certainly intrigued: The Soundtrack of My Life As Arlee…
Best Album Covers: Sticky Fingers
This is the next entry in Best Album Covers, a series begun right here. The first successful long-playing microgroove record for the phonograph was introduced by Columbia Records back in June of…
Steven Hart & The Last Three Miles
To say the least, writer and journalist Steven Hart has a way with words. A good example of that is how he used them for the…
Best Album Covers: Let It Bleed
This is the next entry in Best Album Covers, a series begun right here. The first successful long-playing microgroove record for the phonograph was introduced by Columbia Records back in June of…
Hits, Horns, & Hatch: the 60s with Petula Clark & Tony Hatch
First crushes happen to everyone, including listeners of pop music. Perhaps more so for the latter since the eyes and ears are also involved. Mine would be…
Reblogged » How to Watch This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Films Online
Reblogged: How to Watch This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Films Online. With this morning’s Academy Award nominations now in, Yahoo‘s Alyssa Bereznak wrote up a fine round-up of what’s available online…
Guest Post » Two Favorite Things!: Ensemble Acting & Fred Ward
Greetings all and sundry! With a New Year just making itself known with surprisingly dense fog, unseasonably cold wind and weather rattling panes of glass. I’ve…
Same Song, Different Movie: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
To start the new year of 2015 right, I thought to highlight a well-known (and well used) piece of Baroque music by one of the all-time great classical composers. Johann Sebastian Bach. His instantly recognizable Toccata and Fugue in D Minor a thundering piece, and one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire of the era (1600-1750). Once heard, likely one of most ominous too. Used many times over in cinema by a plethora of filmmakers for decades, two of which come instantly and contrastingly to mind.
On the Lookout for Books and Movies Poll Results
As put forward back in November, having just completed another parallel post season with my partner Rachel, the blogger otherwise known as the Scientist Gone Wordy, we came up with a…
A Song For This Day (and year): Take On Me
In honor of the New Year now upon us, I selected another song from the period that’s been ringing in my ears of late. A distinctly…
Stay Frosty: Year of Bests – 2014
A couple of years back, I did not publish a year-end piece on those articles I most enjoyed reading for the period. Routinely, my online browsing turns…
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700…
Merry Christmas
I know this song is covered by the likes of Taylor Swift, Madonna, The Pussycat Dolls, etc. But, no one in my mind will ever do…
Born Into Film: 1954 – Top 13 From My Birth Year
Things move too fast these days, and I’m not saying that because I turned the big “6-0” this year. No, I say it because I notice…
Two Holiday Greats From The Dark Side
Awhile back, reading Jane Mayer’s excellent non-fiction book of the U.S. reaction to 9/11, The Dark Side, it inspired a need to wax on two of my favorite films by…
Friday Song & Cover: Fragile by Sting, Rebekah Del Rio
Getting my hands, and ears, on a vintage vinyl album recently, which prior I’d only owned digitally (care of Compact Disc), made me appreciate one song in particular all…
eBm: “I thought I’d find you in good hands.”
Having just finished Carte Blanche, the 2011 commissioned novel written by Jeffery Deaver that updates James Bond for “OO” British Secret Service readers, I couldn’t help but…
It Rains... You Get Wet 