Sequencing The Blue Max

Earlier this year, La-La Land Records released a 2-CD set of Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Blue Max. This was the 6th release of this score, with two previous vinyl issues and three previous CD issues. I co-produced this newest release with Nick Redman and while we came up with our own unique playlist for disc 1 (one that is closest to the final movie) we wanted this to be the last word on this terrific score. With Mike Matessino handling the restoration and mixing and Daniel Hersch the final mastering, sonically we knew this would be the best Blue Max yet. But in terms of content, how do you please listeners that have been listening to this music for nearly 50 years? The solution was to figure out what all of the previous albums had on them and make sure it was represented in some capacity. Today, I'm going to share with you how to use the La-La Land album to sequence any of the 5 earlier incarnations of this score.

To do that, I'll list the five earlier albums. The first release is the original album release from Mainstream Records. Prior to the La-La Land release, this sequencing of the score was never on CD.

The second release was from Citadel Records. This release changed most of the original cue titles and the first pressing even swapped two titles on the packaging, so it was the most confusing to figure out. Like the Mainstream, it has never been on CD.

The first CD came from Varese Sarabande in the mid 80s.

The second CD came from Sony in the 90s and had almost the entire score.

The third CD was from Intrada and was released only a few years ago and quickly sold out. It also presented nearly the entire score, but went back to some of the album edits from the Mainstream Records release.

Here's how to listen to any of the earlier releases.

Mainstream Records:  This is the easiest one to re-sequence. Put in disc two and listen to the first 15 tracks. That's the Mainstream Records release! And don't be fooled by the listing at SoundtrackCollector.com. The three source cues were at the end of side 2, not interspersed with the main score. I'll also point out that there were two versions of this album, a stereo release and a mono release, but the musical content was the same.

The cover of the later pressing of the Citadel Records release.

Citadel Records:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. First Flight - Disc 2 Track 25
3. The New Hero - Disc 1 Track 6
4. Desolation - Disc 1 Track 7
5. Passacaglia - Disc 2 Track 23
6. Mocking Waltz - Disc 1 Track 11
7. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 12
8. Prelude to Part Two - Disc 1 Track 15
9. Taste of Blood - Disc 1 Track 16
10. Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 17
11. Retreat (Part One) - Disc 1 Track 18
12. Retreat (Part Two) - Disc 1 Track 19
13. The End of Bruno - Disc 1 Track 23
14. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12

The cover of the first pressing of the Citadel Records release.

Note that the first release of the Citadel had "The New Hero" before "First Flight". This was a typographical error, the musical content was right. The title swap was fixed on later pressings.

Varese Sarabande:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. First Blood - Disc 2 Track 25
4. The First Victory - Disc 1 Track 6
5. The Victim - Disc 1 Track 7
6. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
7. The Attack (parts 1 & 2) - Disc 2 Track 26
8. A Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 8
9. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
10. The Lovers - Disc 1 Track 12
11. Finale to Part I - Disc 1 Track 14
12. Prelude to part II - Disc 1 Track 15
13. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
14. Stachel's Confession - Disc 1 Track 17
15. Retreat Parts I & II - Disc 2 Track 27
16. Stachel in Berlin - Disc 2 Track 11
17. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
18. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
19. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12

Sony:

1. The Blue Max (Main Title) - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
4. First Blood - Disc 2 Track 25
5. First Victory - Disc 1 Track 5
6. The Captive - Disc 1 Track 6
7. The Victim - Disc 1 Track 7
8. The Cobra - Disc 1 Track 8
9. The Attack - Disc 2 Track 26
10. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
11. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 12
12. The Rivals - Disc 1 Track 13
13. Finale to Part 1 - Disc 1 Track 14
14. Prelude to Part 2 - Disc 1 Track 15
15. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 10
16. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
17. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 17
18. Retreat - Disc 2 Track 27
19. Stachel to Berlin - Disc 2 Track 11
20. Nothing Needed - Disc 1 Track 22
21. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
22. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
23. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12
24. Pour Le Mérite March - Disc 2 Track 14
25. Presentiar March - Disc 2 Track 18
26. Student Song Medley - Disc 2 Track 16
27. Artist's Life - Disc 2 Track 21
28. Gloria March - Disc 2 Track 22
29. Deutschland Über Alles - Disc 2 Track 15
30. Watch on the Rhine - Disc 2 Track 13

Intrada:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
4. The Balloon - Disc 2 Track 24
5. First Blood / First Victory - Disc 2 Track 4
6. The Captive / The Victim - Disc 2 Track 6
7. The Cobra - Disc 1 Track 8
8. The Attack - Disc 2 Track 26
9. Love Theme from "The Blue Max" - Disc 2 Track 2
10. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
11. A Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 12
12. The Rivals - Disc 1 Track 13
13. Finale to Part 1 - Disc 1 Track 14
14. Prelude to Part 2 - Disc 1 Track 15
15. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
16. Stachel's Confession - Disc 1 Track 17
17. Retreat - Disc 2 Track 27
18. Stachel to Berlin / Food Riot - Disc 2 Track 11
19. Nothing Needed - Disc 1 Track 22
20. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
21. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
22. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12
23. Finale to Part 2 / Exit Music - Disc 2 Track 28
24. Pour Le Merite March - Disc 2 Track 14
25. Student Song Medley - Disc 2 Track 16
26. Presentiar March - Disc 2 Track 18
27. Artist's Life - Disc 2 Track 21
28. Gloria March - Disc 2 Track 22
29. Watch on the Rhine - Disc 2 Track 13
30. Deutschland Uber Alles - Disc 2 Track 15

There was another release of this score, this time married to the picture. The Blu-ray from Twilight Time features the score isolated on a separate audio track. And the alternate cues are interspersed on a commentary track featuring Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo, and Jon Burlingame.

Special thanks to John Takis and Jeff Bond.

I'm Ignoring You

Please don't take this personally, but I'm ignoring you. Not in real life. Feel free to call or send me a message. However, there is a very good chance I'm ignoring you on Facebook. Don't worry, I didn't go out of my way to intentionally hide you or block you. The past week, I've been ignoring my entire newsfeed. Instead of scrolling down, I'll usually see the top entry before moving over to "Close Friends" or checking out some of the groups I enjoy. But the feed has been ignored and there are many updates I haven't seen.

Over the past few weeks Facebook has been more aggravating than entertaining. Between the deaths of famous actors filling up my feed and ice bucket clutter, I wasn't enjoying my time on Facebook. Constantly reading the same thing from different people was gratuitous and annoying. Previously, Facebook was fun. Suddenly I was getting pissed off at a website. The best thing for me to do was step away.

Of course I'm a tremendous hypocrite and kept posting to my page, but I've come to value Facebook as a kind of online diary. So I've been updating it occasionally with things I'm doing or articles that are of interest to me and maybe my friends. But if something important happened to you, I'm sorry if I didn't see it. And if a famous person died, don't worry, I have other sources for news.

Bat Rambling

1989's summer movie season was an historic bloodbath. In about a month, the record for having the biggest opening weekend was broken three times. First by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, then Ghostbusters II, and then finally by Tim Burton's Batman, which opened 25 years ago today. I was 12 going on 13 when it opened, and I was the target audience. I had started reading Batman comics a few months earlier, just after the "A Death in the Family" storyline.

Cover art for "A Death in the Family" graphic novel.

But I didn't get to see it on June 23. Or the 22nd, when it opened early. Or the 24 or 25. I didn't get to see Batman until Monday, June 26. That was tough for 12 year old me to handle. I don't want to blame my mom for this, but it was her fault (sorry mom). My Bar Mitzvah was on June 24 and she wouldn't let me be out at night, thinking I needed my rest for the big day. I don't think she understood the desire to see this movie. On June 24, my cousins came over to go to the synagogue with us. Guess what? They went to the advance showing on the 22 and decided to re-enact many of the highlights of the film for me. To this day, when I see the Joker dancing and shooting Grissom, I'm reminded of my cousin Alan's recreation. The line, "Bob, gun" also sticks in my head from this early spoiler.

As mentioned above, I did get to see Batman opening week. My mom took me to the AMC Marlton 8 in the evening. I won't go into too many details, I'll just say I left the screening less than impressed. In fact, it was the only time I've seen that movie in the theater. I never had any desire to revisit it on the big screen. I've seen it a few times on home video, and I still don't like it. It was an odd feeling. Summer 1989 belonged to Batman. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing a Bat-symbol advertising the movie. It was the movie everyone was talking about. I kept reading the comics, too. But for some reason this movie has never connected with me and I'm still baffled by its popularity.

Thankfully there was one thing that came out of the movie that I did enjoy, and that was Danny Elfman's score. It wasn't released until later in the summer. Instead, the big Batman soundtrack that was in all of the stores was an album of Prince songs, only some of which were in the movie. The Elfman score was released though, and I remember finding it and buying it immediately. I found it on cassette first, so that's what I listened to. A short time later I found it on CD, and I bought that, too. It became one of those albums imprinted onto my brain. Which was fortunate!

The original CD album cover.

A few years ago, I found out that La-La Land Records was working on an expanded release of the original CD. I called them and asked if I could work on it, since I was familiar with this score. I was told they had a producer, but if they had any problems they'd get in touch with me. It turns out, there were some issues with the materials they had and things were missing. I was asked to see if I could locate some of these missing cues. I made some calls, we brought in some more elements, and we were able to piece together the score. The CD was completed on time and they debuted it at Comic-Con in 2010, where it was a big success. At that convention, Danny Elfman was interviewed by Jeff Bond (who wrote the notes for the La-La Land album) and while this panel was meant to plug another project, our CD got mentioned!

Danny Elfman and Jeff Bond at Comic-Con in 2010.

Since then I've had the opportunity to work on the sequel scores, "Batman Returns" and "Batman Forever" and remain hopeful that someday we'll get to complete the series with "Batman & Robin", which never had a score release.

Here I am with Danny Elfman.

Later, he signed the CD I co-produced!

Presentation is Key

In my last post, I talked about all of the screenings in LA. It's true, we get a lot of great movies here. But are they always shown properly? Seeing a movie presented properly can sometimes be a challenge. One of the theaters I wrote about was the New Beverly. They try to show 35mm film whenever possible. I only just saw my first digital showing there, but as it was a new movie that may not have had a 35mm print made, this was acceptable.

It was a double feature of "Jodorowsky's Dune" and "ALIEN" in honor of Swiss surrealist, H.R. Giger who recently passed away. "ALIEN" was shown on film, the New Beverly's preferred format. For a theater that loves to show film, one would think they'd be better at it.

35mm prints come on reels, each about 20 minutes long. The previous generation of multiplexes put these reels together to make one long continuous print. If the person assembling those reels did the job properly, you should never be aware of the changeover between reels. The New Beverly doesn't use this system. Instead they use two projectors.

This is the way things were done before multiplexes and "platters", and it's a skill for sure. The timing has to be perfect, and back when there were actual projectionists, a good changeover was the sign of a competent projectionist. The New Beverly rarely has seamless changeovers and I can't figure out why. "ALIEN" started out of frame. That means the top of the screen was actually the bottom of the image and vice versa. Reel 2 started out of focus. And reel 7 had an issue with a plate inside the projector so an extraneous part of the film, one never meant to be projected, was showing up on the scrim to the left of the image. That means there was a distraction during the climax of the movie. This was not the sign of a good presentation. The digital showing of "Jodorowsky's Dune" was perfect.

This would seem to indicate that digital must be superior to film. I won't get into that debate here. Both have their advantages, but I'm more inclined to see a movie if I learn that a print is being shown. And I've seen bad digital presentations. In fact, I experienced one last week in an unexpected place! We went to one of the tiny screening rooms on the Sony lot. I've been to these screens numerous times and they are top-notch. They have spectacular sound and usually look great. However, for this showing of "Neighbors" I sensed something was wrong with the presentation. After the movie was over I found the projectionist and I mentioned to him that the image seemed a little dim in the theater. He went on to tell me that they were having a 3D show the next day and the special attachment for that was still in place. So instead of a good looking bright image, we were treated to a muddy dim mess. I will admit it was refreshing to get an honest answer from the projectionist. Usually, when you have a complaint about something technical, people look at you like you're crazy.

I once saw "Superman II" with Ilya Salkind, the producer, in attendance and the left speaker and center speaker wires were crossed. This meant for the entire show, the dialogue came out of the left speaker, instead of the center channel, as it's supposed to. I may have been the only one to notice this. I spoke with the projectionist about it afterwards but I don't know if anything was done to fix it and I'm not sure I was believed. I suspect that when it comes to movie sound, people are not as observant as they are with the picture. If you've never thought about where the sound comes from, you're not going to notice when it's wrong. But everyone can see when a movie is out of focus or improperly framed. And some of us can tell when it's too dim!

My hope is that the presentation and showmanship improves at all of these theaters. We're not just watching images flicker away on a white sheet with multiple speakers blasting around us. A well shown movie will transport the audience and make the movie come alive. It can be a magical experience and that's why I love going to the movies.

Revival Screenings

We bought a new rack to hold our movie collection this week. This rack holds all of our movies on Blu-ray and DVD. I don't buy as many movies as I used to. Most new movies have become disposable entertainment for me. It used to be I would watch them over and over. Now if I see a new movie once, it's usually enough. I see less artistry in them. If I want to watch a movie again, I have quite a few streaming services available. So collecting movies is not the priority it once was.

Another reason I don't collect as many movies as I used to is because of where I live. In Los Angeles, beloved movies play all the time. Marie and I have known each other for a little over three years. We've seen "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in the theater four times. I wouldn't have that film on Blu-ray if I hadn't won it in a contest. It's always playing here. This week it's playing three times at the New Beverly with "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". All three "Indiana Jones" films have played within the last year at the Cinerama Dome and next month the trilogy will be playing at the Egyptian. Why would I want to watch a movie at home on my TV when I can see it as intended on the big screen with movie theater sized sound? Yes, I know the video costs less but watching a movie at home rarely has the impact as seeing it in a theater, and you can't put a price on that. At least I can't.

Here's the top row of our Blu-ray collection (minus "Blow Out" which is out on loan). See that copy of "Air Force One"? I got it inexpensively and I've never watched it. But this Wednesday I'm going into Hollywood to see it at the ArcLight. A few spaces down is "ALIEN", a film I love (I'm listening to the score as I type this, as the movie opened 35 years ago today). Marie and I are seeing that sometime next month at the New Beverly. "The Avengers" will be playing at the ArcLight next month as will "Casino Royale". This represents just one month of movies and one shelf of our collection. Since moving here, I've also seen "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Airplane", "Aliens" (once from James Cameron's own 70mm print!), "Batman Begins", "Caddyshack", and "Carrie" in local revival theaters. I could have seen "Carlito's Way" as well last year, but I had watched the Blu-ray a few days before the screening was announced. You can be sure I would have gone to that otherwise.

With all of the great revival theaters here in LA (The New Beverly, The American Cinematheque, which runs the Aero and the Egyptian, the ArcLight, Cinefamily, the Nuart, and of course the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), I feel less of a need to own a movie. I know at some point a superior presentation will be driving distance from me and I'll get more enjoyment that way. I know I'm not alone in this thinking. I just learned "Raiders of the Lost Ark" will be playing at the AMC, of all places, next month!

The Man With The Hat Is Back

Today marks 25 years since "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" opened. I remember seeing it and the activity around it like it was yesterday. This was a pivotal film in my movie going life. It opened on a Wednesday, but I didn't make my first attempt to see it until Saturday, May 27. I went to the Echelon Mall with my friend David and his family, but the movie was sold out for the day (remember when that could happen?). Instead we hung around the mall. We went to Sam Goody and I found the soundtrack album on CD. Much like today, I love the music of John Williams, and I bought it without seeing the movie.

That night I listened to the CD many times, one time copying it over to cassette. I may have done that on my first listen, but I can't remember that much detail. I do think it's funny that I used to buy CDs and put them on cassette to listen elsewhere. Now I get CDs and the first thing I do is rip them into my computer. In fact, I rarely even play the CDs. But back to "Last Crusade", as stated I listened to that CD a lot that night. I enjoyed the music but was perplexed by the lack of the "Indiana Jones" theme on it, even though Steven Spielberg said in his note they decided not to use it as much. Still, to a 12 year old kid, I bought the "Indiana Jones" soundtrack, I want the "Indiana Jones" theme! That didn't stop my from listening to this score over and over again.

I remember going out to run errands with my mom that evening and I had that tape with me already and we got a newspaper and I went straight to the movie reviews. "Last Crusade" got three-and-a-half stars. The summary was (and this may be a quote) that it "wasn't as good as 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', but what is"?

I finally got to see "Last Crusade" on Memorial Day, May 29. My mom took David and me to see it in Philadelphia at the AMC Orleans 8. I don't remember much of the actual presentation, but this was the first time I ever saw a movie and I noticed there was music in it that wasn't on the soundtrack album. Where was that great boat fight music in the beginning? Where was that part of the tank fight?

Around this time, I had also been introduced to Criterion Laser Discs by my dad and I was used to letterboxing and I was paying attention to widescreen images for the first time. I remember watching the opening train chase and thinking, "There's no way to show the characters on the opposite sides of the screen without letterboxing".

As for the movie itself, I loved it! While it felt like an apology for the previous film, something I don't think is necessary, there's no denying that as a piece of entertainment it succeeds on almost every level. The pairing of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was inspired. There's only one person who could be Indiana Jones's father, James Bond! The opening sequence was a lot of fun, even if it once again shows George Lucas's obsession with prequels, and River Phoenix is terrific as young Indy. It's not a perfect film though. Even in 1989, the effects were a step down from the previous two films, and pursuing a religious artifact while battling Nazi's has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

The summer of 1989 was a notorious "bloodbath" summer at the movies. "Last Crusade" started it (remember when summer movie season started on Memorial Day weekend?), but also that summer, "Batman", "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", "Licence to Kill", "Ghostbusters 2", "The Karate Kid 3", "Lethal Weapon 2" and "The Abyss" were all released. "Batman" reigned supreme for most, but for me, my movie was "Last Crusade". I remember being with my summer camp on a trip and we went to the movies. Most of them chose to see "Batman", but a few of us chose to see "Last Crusade". I saw it again a few months later when it was in a second run theater in NJ, The Harwan in Mt. Ephraim (sadly gone now). Even though my dad had sworn off Spielberg movies after "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", he saw that it was playing at the Harwan and took me to see it.

He also bought a new stereo for me as a Bar Mitzvah gift that summer. He asked me to bring over some CDs to his place when I came to visit him and one of the discs I brought was the "Last Crusade" soundtrack. 25 years later, I still have that Kenwood amplifier and Advent speakers, although they are in different rooms now. Both still work and sound great. In fact, as I'm typing this I'm listening to the "Last Crusade" soundtrack album on those very same loudspeakers!

Since 1989, I've seen "Last Crusade" too many times to count. I'm not even sure which was the best. There was the trilogy showing in 2006 at the Ziegfeld, where beautiful 35mm prints were shown. In 2012 there was a rare 70mm screening at the Egyptian. Recently I saw a digital showing in the Cinerama Dome (photo below).

All three were top presentations. Sadly, I'm told Paramount no longer has 35mm prints to loan out for this movie, so from now on it will all be digital. I'm glad I got to experience this film many times on film.

What are some of your memories of seeing "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"? Share them in the comments below. Also, if you enjoy this piece, please consider sharing it on your social network of choice. You can also follow me on Google+, twitter and Facebook.

Is It Safe?

This past week I've had a lot of conversations about going to the dentist. I don't know why, but I've seen several posts from people on Facebook about it and have even had several conversations with different people about this. Looking for something to write about, I chose oral hygiene.



Finding a dentist is a pain. Going to one is a pain, too, but it's necessary. You only get one set of teeth, so you should take care of them. For many years, I went to the same dentist in New Jersey, Dr. Carl Byck. He was great. But then he retired. Finding a replacement was something I wasn't motivated to do and for several years I didn't go to the dentist. During this period, I'm sure I had the oil changed in my car regularly. Think about that!

Eventually I think I went to my mom's dentist and all was good. But then I moved away to California and needed to find a dentist. Asking for recommendations didn't really help. No one seems to like their dentist or there's some flaw they tell you about. One had fundamentalist Christian propaganda in the office, ("You can go if that doesn't bother you") or another is way out in Santa Monica. Finding a dentist was a challenge. Again, I didn't go for a few years. My car was running wonderfully, however.

Finally, a friend recommended her dentist and we made a "dental date" and went to the dentist together. This is key. Going to the dentist once is not going to solve all of your dental problems. Here's the secret for going to the dentist regularly. If you like this dentist, and I like mine, Dr. William Weissman, DDS, schedule your next appointment before you leave the office! That's important. Now you're seeing your dentist regularly. Those six months will fly and if it's been awhile since you've seen a dentist things will improve for you.

Now it's not all fun. I like to think I have good habits. First a confession. I don't have any cavities. Neither does my sister. Our parents instilled in us good habits I guess. I won't bore you this time with the details of my brushing habits, but I will say I spend a lot of time on my teeth in the morning and even more in the evening. I have a whole routine. When I go to bed, nothing is going on in my mouth! But when I go to the dentist? First he tells me what a good job I'm doing. (Secret confession, I also go to the dentist regularly to get praise like that.) And then after I feel good being told this, he then goes on to scrape my teeth for 20 minutes. I brush, and floss, and mouthwash regularly to avoid this!



At the end of the visit I feel like a million dollars though. My mouth is clean, I'm reassured that I'm doing the right thing and I know that in six months, I'll be back to do it all over again. It's very simple to have a regular dental routine. If you're already doing this, great! If not, I recommend you start today.

Spider-Man: Turn on the Laughs

Spider-Man is everywhere, even my last blog entry. I'm going to write a little more about Spider-Man. Growing up, I would read the occasional Spider-Man comic, but he was far from my favorite hero. Somewhere, there is a photo of a two year old me getting a Spider-Man t-shirt and you never saw a happier child. My mom tells me I really wanted that shirt. Now I really want that photo. But I didn't follow him or enjoy him as much as Superman or Batman. I've always considered myself a DC person, and I still do.

In fact, when it comes to Spider-Man, my fondest memory goes back just a little over 3 years ago. Spider-Man helped me through a very difficult time. When I lived in New Jersey, I had a beautiful cat named Peppi. She was the greatest little creature you ever met. Well she was if you were my mom, my sister or me. Otherwise, she probably tolerated you or didn't like you. That doesn't change the fact that we all loved this little cat and she loved us. Peppi was great.

I found her as a kitten my sophomore year of high school. This photo was taken not long after we first got her.

I'd never had a pet before and she quickly became part of the family. I'm guessing this happens with most pets. I haven't had one since I moved to California in 2007 but Marie and I are talking about adopting two cats soon.

But back to Peppi. This little girl lived to be 19 years old. Let me put that in human terms. Miss June 2010, Katie Vernola, was younger than my cat. Do you have any idea how awkward it is to realize your cat is older than the woman appearing as a centerfold in Playboy? And yes, that was the issue of Playboy that came with the 3D glasses, so I had to suffer the double humiliation of reading Playboy while also wearing 3D glasses and then realizing my cat was older than the centerfold.

Towards the end of 2010, Peppi got sick, and it came on fast. I won't make you sad with the details, but on December 4, 2010, we had to put the little girl down. My mom and sister called me from the vet and had me on speakerphone. It was tough to get through and I was 3000 miles away. I hadn't seen Peppi in over a year and now I'd never get to see her again. I was devastated but Spider-Man cheered me up.

There was a Broadway musical that was being prepared at the time and it kept getting hit with delays. Articles were appearing all the time about this show, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", and all of the problems it was having. Conan O'Brien, who'd recently returned to late-night TV, had a lot of fun with this musical. It was one of these bits that helped me get through my depressing time losing my cat. I played it over and over again and it just kept making me laugh. To this day, I can still sing all of the lyrics (Marie knows them as well now) and it still makes me laugh. I also think of my cat, but mainly I think of the laughs. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.

Silence is Golden

Marie and I went to the movies yesterday. She works for a studio, and they were having an early screening of the new Spider-Man movie. I was excited because I enjoyed the last film and I knew I wouldn't get to see it opening weekend and didn't want anything spoiled. This was perfect!

We got to the theater early enough to be first in line, only about 20 minutes before they started seating. I like getting to the movies early. It reduces the stress for what's supposed to be a diversion. It also helps to get perfect seats. Our showing was in The Cary Grant Theater at Sony. I made sure we sat in the row closest to the mixing console in the center. This is key for two things. First, Marie can't sit close to a screen with a lot of activity going on and second I wanted to hear the sound as close to the way the mixers heard it. From a technical point of view, these seats were perfect. No motion sickness and a perfect surround sound experience.

However my perfect movie going experience was one of the worst theatrical experiences I've had. The showing we went to was at 12:45 on a Saturday afternoon. I wound up sitting next to three children who looked to be no older than 6. Their guardians (parents? grandparents?) didn't seat the kids between them but rather to the right of where they sat, meaning there was no one between me and the last kid. They talked and made noise before the movie, but I was hoping once the bright shiny things showed up on screen they'd be into that and would be quiet. That didn't happen. To be fair, even the kid I was sitting next to was asking his friend to be quiet. I also asked him, which really made me feel like a bully. It didn't matter, he was never quiet. Even annoyed friend made sounds with a plastic wrapper during critical quiet scenes and I know I missed lines of dialogue. So please don't ask me what I thought of Spider-Man 2. My experience was so tainted by these little brats that I didn't enjoy my time out and I don't know what I think of the movie. Maybe I'll watch it again when it's out on video.

Introduction

My name is Neil. I live in southern California. I'm recently married and have a lot of great friends. Growing up I loved music and movies, and here in LA I get to experience them in ways I never imagined possible. We have the finest movie theaters and a repertory program like you wouldn't believe. There are so many film music concerts and events that I'm taking a break from them, which I plan on writing about at a later date.

My goal with this blog is to write about what interests me. That's probably every blogs goal, now that I think of it. What I suppose I'll be doing here is not sticking with one subject. This isn't going to be "Neil's Star Trek Blog" or "Neil's Awesome Disneyland" blog (although both could be topics).

Image courtesy of the LA Times

I could write about yesterday, where my wife and I went to a Phillies game taking public transportation in LA. That blog could have a lot written about how much I hate the TAP card system, and it's lack of feedback at terminals. I already have some topics in mind, which is why I started this thing in the first place.

Together, we'll see how this goes. I can't promise exciting things, but maybe we can have some discussions that will lead to exciting things. And if not, at least I can vent.