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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ten Minute Thoughts

These are ten minute thoughts, written and published in ten (or so) minutes.

There are many film score options on the market. There are limited releases, commercial releases, online and in-store releases. There are rereleases of older releases. Disc upon disc and byte upon byte of releases. New ones come in, older ones are phased out. They are bought, traded and sometimes discarded. One day, they are rare, priceless items. The next day, they are dime a dozen. Collections are built or destroyed around these releases.

With all this talk of what, how, when and where, one thing is easily overlooked...why.

Does one copy of any item differ so greatly from another? Does a fan need to continually update a collection based on what a producer decides to release with new material? When does a fondness of film music turn into an obsession?

This side of the peanut gallery will remain silent but for the sounds gently wafting through the air from my little stereo.

Ah, the joys of soundtracking.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Film Score Frenzy

It was a muggy day in Los Angeles. A film score fan was not the one to step outside in such dreadful weather. Instead, he decided to listen to some tunes. He ventured into his large soundtrack vault and stood dead center of the darkened, windowless vault. On each wall were shelves up to the ceiling, each filled with hundreds of titles. He stared at the shelves for hours, hoping one title would pop out and demand a personal audience. Not a single disc called out to him; the silence pounded like a timpani in his skull.

Or perhaps it was timpani he heard after all? He rushed over to the nearest score featuring the instrument, John Barry's Zulu. He picked it off the shelf and examined the case. The disc was still there. The drums has stopped. Moments passed like a Lion in Winter, with nary a timpani to be heard. Zulu was the Wrong Box. The man slid the jewel case back into its slot on the wall as the drumming began again. With the sound of drums in The Deep and the Mercury Rising, the fan continued his search. He would solve this Enigma, he told himself, even if it took him Until September to do so. He continued to Walkabout the L-Shaped Room, destined to Never Let Go of The Chase.

The percussive Vibes traveled up, down and Once Around the poor fan's spine, making a Deep Impact on his psyche. Suddenly, the fan had a Brainstorm. The drums must be from James Horner's Jumanji. He purchased that score while on vacation in A Far Off Place with fellow Volunteers. He rushed to the Horner aisle in the vault to pull The Forgotten score Up From the Depths of his collection. Unfortunately, Jumanji was not the source of the heavy pounding. “Heaven Help Us” the poor fan shouted as Testament to his despair.

Seconds later, the Runaway drums appeared, like Magic. Once again The Lonely Guy's mind was Under Fire. The pounding Leviathan from the recesses of his score collection drove him to The Edge of insanity. He continued The Pursuit of The Shadow of The Vanishing drums. The sonic Poltergeist led him to his Jerry Goldsmith collection, where once again The Haunting sounds ceased.

He Wanted to find the source of the drums. Instinct and Pure Luck led the poor fan to the Forbidden Zone of his collection, Danny Elfman. “Anywhere but Here”, he told himself as he strolled down the Notorious aisle. How could A Simple Plan as listening to a CD over a glass of warm Milk turn into a Mission: Impossible? He would need to take Extreme Measures to stop the drums from driving him Psycho.

Catch Me If You Can!” thundered the drums to the fan. Like Heartbeeps, the drums murmured on, leading the crazed fan, like a fish on a Hook, through the CD vault. He stopped Midway between the Rosewood door and the Movie Images wall when the drums knocked him off his feet. What once seemed Far and Away was now beating him into the ground, an Earthquake-sized force. He knew that his calls for help would go unanswered; he was Home Alone. The beast of a noise had him in its Jaws. He would have to be as strong as Superman to get out of the John Williams section alive.

Although he was between The Rock and a hard place, he knew all he needed was The Power of One to set him free. Something's Gotta Give, and it was not going to be him. The Fan dashed to the only section he knew would drown out the drumming, the section where Angels and Demons dwell. He would break The Pledge to never enter The Ring, if only to stop the Black Rain of noise. “I'll Do Anything”, he convinced himself as he entered the dark circle. It had been more than Nine Months since he stepped foot in cold Zimmer country. The Chill Factor in that corner of the vault was incredibly high.

Nevertheless, he grabbed the first CD within reach and threw it into the nearby surround system. He punched it to the highest volume and waited for sonic salvation. Moments passed and nothing happened to quell the onslaught of percussion. He looked at the stereo, which had shut down and refused to turn on again. The poor sap had tried to draw too much power from the circuits and has thus blown all the Transformers.

Monday, August 2, 2010

This is the Website...

Red Barber was right. Just ask Vin Scully.

Long-time Dodger announcer Scully learned from Barber, his mentor from their days in Brooklyn, that the announcer should never be a “homer”, that is, openly root for the team which pays the salary. Be neutral, keep opinions out of the game.

As Joe Friday would say, “All we want are the facts...”.

Dodgers and Dragnet aside, this idea is very important to the renewal of ReelMusicOnline. The articles featured here must be as neutral as possible, sticking to facts whenever possible. This site has no place for rumor mongering or reputation destruction. The stories that you will read here will be true.

Truth and neutrality are wonderful assets, but they don't cover all the bases. RMO will strive for literary excellence. Police reports are full of nonpartisan facts, but they don't hit the best-seller lists. This site's main goals are to entertain, educate and enlighten its readers. Boring articles are still boring whether they are true or not.

A good piece of literature should engage the reader in a number of ways: emotionally, intellectually and literally. Journalism, whether in print or online, is nothing more than good, instant literature. Whereas a book may take its time to get to the point, journalism must make a strong case immediately or lose out to more appealing fare.

RMO also appreciates other voices and will not object to publishing the works of other film music fans. The only catch is that articles must follow the same basic RMO rules of truth and respect.

With that, ReelMusicOnline is back. Play Ball!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Breaking the Silence

Life is full of distractions. The trick is to properly sort them into priorities.

This site has slipped into silence for far too long, for reasons far too long to list.

My goal is to write here once a week. They may not be long posts, but what I strive for in writing is quality, not quantity.

Do not fret. This site will return. Eventually...