November 22, 2005
Links, music, MLP++
Since it's been a while since I've done one of these, let's start off with some random linkage about, say, glowing porkchops. Take-home message: if it glows, you probably shouldn't eat it. Unless someone splices the phosphorescence gene into the Lactobacillus fermentum bacterial strain that makes yoghurt... then you could have a breakfast that was easy to eat before dawn! Um.
Or there's the Grand Canyon skywalk, which is apparently really being planned. It makes me feel slightly vertiginous just thinking about it -- a clear glass walkway with nothing underneath you. Brr.
And finally, my random linkage brings to you the 80s lyrics test. Even with a few stupid errors, I managed to get 112, clearly beating the next highest person in the room (90-odd). Given that I didn't buy records, and the first CD I ever bought was No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom, this isn't too bad. :)
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I bought a bunch of old soundtrack cds last weekend -- and by old, I mean they're from movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s, things like Ivanhoe, The Guns of Navarone and King Kong. While reading the liner notes for the cd focusing on Miklòs Ròzsa, they talked about his innovative use of the theremin. Three things I learned were: the two first American films to use the theremin as part of their score were Spellbound and The Lost Weekend (Spellbound's music was composed earlier, but The Lost Weekend was released first); the studio wanted to use it for the Christ sections of Ben Hur (but the composer refused); and the composer wanted to use the related instrument, the ondes martenot for the film The Thief of Bagdad in 1939, but they couldn't because the only person who could play it (the inventor) was "discovered to be defending France at the Maginot Line". (The ondes martenot was used in Amèlie, by the by.)
It would have been kind of cool to be around when electronics was just getting off the ground, and it was possible to invent completely new instruments. Inventing a new sound filter isn't quite the same.
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Fifteen more My Little Pony drives -- Winterberry, Wondermint, Lily, Sunnydaze, Stardasher, Seaspray, Periwinkle, Crystal Lace, Sunburst, Seashimmer, Sunshower, Babyfrosting, Rosedust, Prettybow, and Skydancer. Fly, my pretties!
Posted by svend at November 22, 2005 5:09 PM