theWheel

theOwl

theOwl

Somehow I missed this movie. It is a Masterpiece. Buy it. Rent it. Whatever.

See it. Hear it.

(Update – 8.3.08)

Beatles fanatic that I am, I don’t know how I missed seeing Across the Universe when it first came out in late 2007.

I remember seeing the title up on the marquis at the State Theater on campus and of course being curious. I seem to remember hearing part of a musical track – I Want To Hold Your Hand? – and thinking that it was a really good cover of the song. But still, time being what it is, I never pulled it together to go out of my way to seek the film out.

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theOwl

Could it be that all of us are green in one way or the other? All or us want to defy gravity? What does it mean to be popular? – or good? – or Wicked?

As a birthday gift for my daughters, my mom got us all tickets to see the musical play Wicked up in East Lansing. Thus was my Sunday afternoon occupied.

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theOwl

Oh, I try to be positive. I wanted to love WALL*E. When I saw Ratatouille, I raved about it. I admire Pixar, and would love to write music for them some day.

But I didn’t love WALL*E. I was bored. And it’s not WALL*E’s fault. The people at Pixar know, better than anyone on or off this Planet, that Story trumps all. » Read the rest of this entry «

theOwl

I found this video of Stephen Sondheim teaching and directing the duet My Friends from his Sweeney Todd to be quite interesting. This piece has long been my favorite in the show – it’s just amazing, and then, to top it off, Jonathan Tunick’s orchestration (listen to the cinematic clip below) is beautiful.

The dramatic subtleties, and the way they are made manifest in Sondheim’s music and lyric are something to behold.

Now watch and listen to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter on the same tune in the recent movie musical. It’s really Sweeney’s moment here, and Depp gets what Sondheim was going for.

Bravo.

Several weeks ago I posted a pod about my song Illumination. When I began to write Illumination in the early 1990s I also set out at the same time to write “the ultimate dance song”. That impulse grew to be the subject of tonight’s pod, Dancing in the Future. » Read the rest of this entry «

Tonight I will simply share the cutest bit of audio that has ever graced my little corner of the Universe. In the first week of June 2002, when my daughter Theodora had just recently turned 3 years old, I was in the early stages of improvising musical settings for Arnold Lobel’s FABLES.

One way to get some work done while caring for a 3-year-old was simply to have Thea sit next to me at the piano, where I would often have my mini disc recorder turned on just in case I came up with something worth remembering.

Thea had a request -

“The Angel Pig”

What she wanted was to see Lobel’s illustration of his FABLE The Pig at the Candy Store. Once I found the correct page we were privileged to see a winged pig flying “joyfully” through an outer space of candy.

Thea had something to say.

Such are the conditions in which this composer worked for years.

Thank God.

theOwl

Last Friday night Karen and I went to the movies and saw and heard Sweeney Todd.

It was fantastic.

It was horrible.

When we got home I tried to write about the show while the memory was still fresh for me, but I couldn’t put my finger on the essence of the experience until I spoke with Karen, who totally nailed it. I can’t do any better, so I’ll paraphrase:

You’re captured by the music – and then the music holds you there squirming while it forces you to go along for the ride.

It forces you to look at something you would ordinarily look away from.

It’s like being water-boarded or something. A near drowning experience. Exquisite torture.

Not exactly a high recommendation. But I agree.

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theOwl

I started writing The Ballad Of Penniless Nicholas in the mid 1980s – perhaps 1985 or so. The whole thing was actually Karen’s idea, initiated when she asked how I pronounced my middle name.

“Nicholas,” I told her.

She said “Penniless Nicholas – Penniless Nicholas had no common sense.”

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theOwl

We’re getting there…

YouTube Imbed UPDATED 6.22.09