Categories
Serious Stuff

To live (and leave) in Utah

1 min read

19 months after it began, our adventure in Utah ended much like it began, except in reverse.

We packed out the house we were living in, boxed up the pets in their respective carriers, loaded the kids into one car while another vehicle was towed behind the moving truck, waved goodbye to our neighbors, and off we went, capping off a year and a half of reaching for fresh starts
and frequently ending up with crushing turns of fortune.  As we drove south toward Albuquerque, retracing the steps that had brought us to Utah in the first place, I found myself wondering… had I failed as a father, as the head of the household (as opposed to the shoulders or the central nervous system), or was I succeeding in putting my foot down and making the call to get us out of this insanely expensive state so we could return to somewhere closer to where we had come from in the first place?

I’m still not sure I have the answer to that question.… Read more

Categories
Defies Description

Earl’s Spring 2020 Album Anticipation Post

4 min read

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? And admittedly, this is probably a pretty piss-poor time to do it, since everyone’s discretionary income has become a big question mark, if not a big fat zero. And that “everyone” includes me, too – this is a pretty sparse list.  But there’s some really great music – both soundtrackish and otherwise – that has just landed, and some yet to come.

Jeff Russo – Star Trek: Picard – Season One

As good as the show was, it would have been sunk without a score worthy of its subject matter and storyline.  Fortunately, not only did we get a score that could be either lush and orchestral, or disturbing and electronic, but the production sprang not just for a battle-tested composer (Russo also scored Star Trek: Discovery), but for the publishing royalties necessary for multiple quotations of Jerry Goldsmith’s theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  The result was something that managed to feel like it was of a piece with what had gone before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqyX4INmyD8

Paul Melancon & The New Insecurities – Get Gos Action Hour!

It’s been far, far too long since we had an album-length opus from this Georgia-based singer-songwriter who speaks fluent power pop.  Part of the reason for that lengthy lull has been his own mental health struggles and realizations (and hey, I’m hip to that), and he pours all of that into a fantastic new album that covers enough conceptual ground to avoid feeling like one of those albums that’s obviously about the songwriter’s trauma.  It’s deceptively upbeat, jam-tastic, and instantly hummable/sing-along-able.  Fans of Jellyfish’s densely-produced, ’70s-sunny vibe, do take note of this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LYgtEJqOig

Segun Akinola – Doctor Who: Series 12

Just released as I write this, this 2-CD set (does anyone else still count things in compact discs as a unit of measurement?) reveals why modern Doctor Who may be the best composing gig on TV these days: every episode gets its own wildly different, widescreen-cinematic musical treatment.  Now in his second year of scoring Doctor Who, Segun Akinola demonstrates an amazing ability to gracefully handle every stylistic gear-shift that the show sends his way, and the results are often big, brassy, and unapologetically melodic, and frequently creepy too.  Some of the best TV music today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9krgzPNZQ

The Lickerish Quartet – Threesome Vol. 1

It’s funny that I brought up Jellyfish earlier, because in Lickerish Quartet, you have a reunion of three ex-members of Jellyfish from the circa-1992 Spilt Milk lineup, again pouring everything they’ve got into that same seventies-inspired vibe, with impressive results.  Rather than gambling on an entire album, The Lickerish Quartet plans to record and release a series of shorter EPs over time, each one packed with trippy masterpieces like this first single from the first release.  It’d be so easy, in repping the power pop genre, to rely on nostalgia; this group relies instead on off-the-scales musicianship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZM8CQxnOPQ

Dudley Simpson – Doctor Who: The Sun Makers

A real oddball release that I absolutely did not expect before its May release date on both CD and vinyl was announced, this is yet another Doctor Who soundtrack…but unlike the latest music from the most recent season, this is the complete score from a 1977 Tom Baker story, unearthed on tape and given its first release in any form.  The late, great Dudley Simpson was the in-house composer for the second, third, and fourth Doctors, but despite that, very little of his work has survived, let alone an entire score from start to finish.  I’m giddy with anticipation.

I’m fully aware that sitting here gushing about upcoming music releases is an activity in dire danger of reeking of tone-deaf privilege.  But for as long as I’m able to…damn it, I insist on having at least a little something to look forward to.  “Normal” is quite a long ways off – and you know, I’m not sure I ever really did “normal” very well to begin with – but if the very least I can look forward to is some good music, I’ll take it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAmZjYLRYzU… Read more

Categories
Music

Time has rearranged, but time has the final word

1 min read

That kind of sounds like something the Doctor would say, doesn’t it? Except it’s lyrics from an ELO song. I’ve talked before about how my introduction to ELO was very much a byproduct of my early sci-fi fandom; why, just for giggles, I once remixed an ELO song to add the Blaster Beam (you know, That Instrument from the soundtrack of the first Star Trek movie), because the song was kind of a musical sci-fi short story in and of itself, and to make up for the fact that ELO could have been – but wasn’t – asked to contribute music to the Star Wars Holiday Special. So we’ve got our Star Wars and Star Trek connections there, what about Doctor Who? … Read more

Categories
Home Base Toiling In The Pixel Mines

A chunk of 1995 on VHS

1 min read

It’s a slow, rainy weekend, so I’ve spent a bit of time today getting back to some VHS archiving/digitization, a project I paused due to the move a year ago. I had to watch quite a lot of this to figure out what it was, because there was a lot of disjointed B-roll, and then a looooong stretch of me (and this is back when I had some hair, man) doing what sounds like a video letter to someone describing my job. … Read more

Categories
Serious Stuff Television & Movies

Remembering Aron Eisenberg

1 min read

I’m still trying to process the news that Aron Eisenberg passed last night. The evolution of his Ferengi character, Nog, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had a lot of personal meaning for me, as I think was the case for anyone who’s ever had to stand toe-to-toe with someone and say “give me a chance to prove I’m more than what you think I am.” … Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

The Black Hole & WALL-E Cinematic Universe

1 min read

There is, in fact, method to the madness I’ve been talking about for many a year. These two movies belong together. Here, I’ll show my work. Images are zoomable. Feel free to send others here so they, too, can rewatch both movies in this somewhat disturbing new light!

By the way, the new Blu-Ray edition of The Black Hole is outstanding.

The Black Hole & WALL-E Cinematic UniverseRead more

Categories
Television & Movies Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Coffee expertly roasted by dragons

1 min read

Okay, so here’s the thing. I used to do post-production for a living, albeit for a local TV station or four in one state or another. So I know, intimately, what kind of phone call *somebody* almost certainly got at 11 o’clock Pacific time last night to start the process of editing a Starbucks cup out of existence in a scene from Game Of Thrones. I know that call too well. It goes a little something like this:

“Hey Earl, you’ve got some free time between now and ten, right?” … Read more