So, what are you listening to these days?

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A week or so ago, The Hound + The Fox hinted at something special for Hallowe'en ... the two of them dressed as Gomez and Mortician Addams. Now they have revealed all. Not a cover of the famous theme song, but a new original song written by McKenzie, the female half of the duo, as a tribute to the famous couple. It has the suitably macabre title of "Rot Next to You". Even incorporates some of the finger-snapping from the original series theme song.


The Zambers are a wonderful on screen couple so seeing them cosplaying one of my all-time favorite fictional couples is a real treat and the song is actually pretty good, too. McKenzie looks gorgeous as Morticia and Reilly's Gomez is cute, perhaps a bit "nerdier" looking than usual for the character.
 
A week or so ago, The Hound + The Fox hinted at something special for Hallowe'en ... the two of them dressed as Gomez and Mortician Addams.
I'm leaving that typo alone (bolded). It fits too well to fix. :LOL:
 
Famed German record label Deutsche Grammophon have an album and video out of John Williams conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a concert of his own compositions. Needless to say, it is familiar fare if you have watched movies over the past 40 or 50 years. He has written marvelous scores to accompany films like the main Star Wars series, the Indiana Jones series, most of Steven Spielberg's movies, and the first couple Harry Potter movies.

Jurassic Park is a shining example of Williams at his peak. The sweeping music hits the perfect note when the cast first see the dinosaurs, while his talent for suspense kicks in high gear when things go awry. From the Vienna concert, here is the overture to Jurassic Park.

 
Perhaps Williams' most popular piece of music debuted in 1977. The success of Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars, Episode IV - A New Hope) was due in no small measure to the score, in which Williams drew on classic Hollywood scores from the pre-war era and late Romantic composers like Gustav Holst for inspiration. The theme ended up appearing in all nine of the "Skywalker Saga" Star Wars movies and inspired a renaissance in lush orchestral movie scores, including most of Williams subsequent work.

 
For my money, the best of Williams Star Wars scores was the second, The Empire Strikes Back. It had powerful, distinctive themes woven together to accompany what remains arguably the best movie in the series from a dramatic standpoint. One of the most popular new themes from Empire was the powerful, percussive march he composed to represent the militaristic might of the Galactic Empire, and the Emperor's powerful enforcer/apprentice, Darth Vader.


And if you want to see where some of that came from, listen to Mars, Bringer of War by Gustav Holst, especially the strong percussion line.

 
One of the early Hollywood composers often cited as an inspiration for Star Wars, and Williams' music in general, is Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Here is a sample of Korngold's work from 1935's Captain Blood.

 
Williams' has a romantic side, too, seen in the themes he wrote for characters like Leia in Star Wars or this one, for Indiana Jones love interest Marion Ravenwood.


I can't find when Williams recorded this, but he is now 88 years old and this was just released so he must have been in his mid-eighties and is looking pretty good for his age.
 
Morticians also practiced surgery, barbary, etc. whatever would make the dead look good ...
I knew that. The Addams Family was supposed to be creepy and Morticia was an invented name. I don't think anyone was actually named that before her - but maybe some weird parents named kids Morticia after her. Poor kids.
 
I sometimes think I should have been a goth but I was a bit too early for that subculture.
Yeah. I knew a couple of people when I did fundraising for a theatre company, who were the real deal. A long time ago. Early 90's. I was in my late teens early 20s. One claimed to be a singer of an obscure band with a cult following - called London After Midnight - he was a really nice guy actually but he looked really weird. He put pale make-up on. Wore a cape. Like a vampire - on purpose of course. He gave me a "demo tape" that I was told was him and his band - which was cool sounding actually - said he was from LA, and a bunch of other tales. He had a nickname and lied about his real name. Turns out it was bulls**t. But anyway, he was friendly. I don't know why he lied. I ran into him in Vancouver and he was taking make-up artistry for film. That I believe. Plus, he was on the same block as the school when I saw him. Looking less goth, more hipster.
(I think goth was somewhat influential to mainstream youth culture then even if one wasn't right into it - the fashion, the music - goth, punk and grunge kind of blurred in the middle. That's how I remember it.)
 
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It was also a "Mod" thing. Black slim pants and black turtlenecks - and pointy shoes. I wore all black quite a bit too. It was a thing that even "regular" people did in the 90s. All black with some purple Doc Martens.thought nothing of it - it was just common steer wear. It tends to be more slimming!
 
Black slim pants and black turtlenecks
Now forever known as the "Jobs look". :D

I have a black long sleeve shirt that I wear with black slacks for work but that's as close as I come.

On topic, I see Bahamas (real name Afie Jurvanen) has new tunes out. And since the CBC can't well bring him into the studio for a "First Play Live" these days, they shot him performing them in (apparently) his house with his family as extras. Listened to one today while I exercised and will listen to more as the week wears on. Bahamas plays and writes lean, spare (mostly) acoustic pop that tends to the mellow end of the spectrum. Fits his stage name, really, because I can picture mellowing to it on vacation or something like that.

 
Actually, here's the full "First Play Live" for the album, which titled "Sad Hunk". The one I posted above appears partway through.

 
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