Drive Time

Just thought I'd list what's circulating through my iPod regularly these days on the trip to and from work. The only rule for this list is that each track has to be less than ten minutes. Arbitrary, I know, but it works for the drive.

(Format: Track Title - Album - Composer/Band)

"New Adventures" - Doctor Who - The New Series (Murray Gold)
"Original Blend" - Blurred (Billband/Bill Ryan)
"Cock/Ver 10" - Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound plays Aphex Twin (Richard D. James)
"Lollapalooza" - Century Rolls (John Adams)
"Molossus" - Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard)
"Helix" - LAPhil/Salonen (Esa-Pekka Salonen)
"Tangiers" - The Bourne Ultimatum (John Powell)
"Pencil Stick" - Stick Music (Clogs)
"Who's Down Now?" - Lullaby for Sue (Clogs)
"imreadywhenyouare" - Light Is Calling (Michael Gordon)
"Gloria" - König Der Letzten Tage (Wojciech Kilar)
"Balin's Tomb/Khazad-Dûm" - The Fellowship of the Ring: Complete Recordings (Howard Shore)
"Intervention" - Neon Bible (The Arcade Fire)
"Last Train Home" - The Road to You (Live) (Pat Metheny)
"Duel of the Fates" - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (John Williams)
"Pompeii" - Unearthed (E.S. Posthumus)
"G-Spot Tornado" - The Yellow Shark: Ensemble Modern plays Frank Zappa (Frank Zappa)

Yeah. It's a total hodge-podge.

Hans and James Do It Again

I picked up the score for The Dark Knight last night.

Oh...my...god.

More later but if you liked the first one, go get it.

You'll Need Chest-Waders For This One

I was picking up my research into graduate programs recently when I came across the this:

I guess what bothers me most is how the document seems to talk out both sides of its mouth. It's littered with ambiguity, pretentiousness, absolutism and broad, sweeping statements without context.

Creative work...is directed to an audience; but its proper role is to define an audience, not to respond to one.

I thought we had gotten past this. I thought the creator/audience dynamic was, to a certain extent, a give-and-take situation. Even Pierre Boulez recently admitted that, in retrospect, perhaps they (the Darmstadt crowd) should have taken their audience into greater account.

I understand what is being got at in many cases here; it just seems that the wrong path is being trod in order to get there. Additionally the thesaurus seems to have been open for the duration.

It's okay to take seriously what you do; just don't be so damned serious about what you do.

We're composers. We move blocks of sounds, no, the representations of sounds, around on a piece of staff paper, a notation program or a digital music creation program. We do this in a manner that is pleasing to ourselves and, if we're lucky, others as well.

Feel free to argue, disagree, enhance, etc. I leave you to it.

Film Score Friday: 4th of July Edition

It seems that every year about this time Hollywood sees fit to try to destroy our little planet. Be it by disaster or alien invasion one can almost always count on popcorn munching, soda guzzling good times when the end of the world is nigh.

Today we celebrate the fun that the Destruction of the World can be.

Today's playlist will be chosen from the following:

Mars Attacks! - Danny Elfman
Signs - James Newton Howard
Transformers - Steve Jablonsky
Starship Troopers - Basil Poledouris
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Elliot Goldenthal
War of the Worlds - John Williams
Stargate - David Arnold
Independence Day - David Arnold
Men In Black - Danny Elfman