The Lorax

by on October 27, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Posted In: Test

Just saw this sneak preview of the Lorax and I have to say I am skeptical as hell. It looks technically well done and I liked previous work by Illumination Studios, (Despicable Me rocked) but what I’m seeing so far looks like Dr. Seuss’s original material is tacked onto a different story almost as an afterthought. Why bother buying the licensing rights for something else when you can make something that’s all your own.

Of all the books by Dr. Seuss. I would think the Lorax would be the hardest ones to do… Do it wrong and it comes off preachy… Yes the Lorax IS preachy but it’s the good kind. Done right it should be operatic.

What I’m seeing here , and I’m hoping the trailer is taking a lot of this out of context is an attempt to do just another slapstick comedy. I’m hoping that this is deliberate misdirection, but… Danny DeVito as the Lorax, really?

 

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Tuesday Rhapsodies

by on October 25, 2011 at 9:52 am
Posted In: Test

Today something fun. Fritz Freleng‘s “Rhapsody in Rivets” from 1941. It’s yet another version of Liszt‘s second Hungarian Rhapsody but it’s lot’s of fun and Fritz is one of my favorite animator of all time.  Besides Carl Stalling plays with the original material enough that the score becomes something entirely new.

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Drunkard’s Song

by on October 23, 2011 at 9:32 am
Posted In: Test

I’ve been a fan of Spider Robinson‘s Callahan’s Series for a very long time. One of the best things in the Calahan stories were the occasional songs incorporated into the stories which I would spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what the melody that went with the lyrics were. Recently I was rereading a collection in the story and learned that Spider had recorded several of his songs which had me tracking them down and delighted to find them to be everything I had hoped for.

So here is Spider Robinson’s Drunkard Walk. Enjoy and if you like it he has free downloads of it at his webpage.

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Happy Birthday Dizzy!

by on October 21, 2011 at 7:00 am
Posted In: Test

I’m ashamed to say that I’m late in my appreciation for the great Dizzy Gillespie. For the longest time when my knowledge of Jazz pretty much consisted of the “basics” like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker, he was one of the other musicians… Specifically the one I only remembered because of the puffed cheeks and the funny looking horn. It was only later when I realized and appreciated just what he could really do with the thing.

To make up for that let’s watch him have a really good time playing “St. Louis Blues” with the Electric Mayhem.

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