I also stopped blogging, because I was both disappointed in the shallow quality of my film music criticism, expressed in this blog, and the fear I might be found out as a fraud.(the photo, harbinger of spring and renewal, are of the first dafs, taken on the 8th of F'IN' FEBRUARY already, in my Paris garden, although I am back in Santa Monica now)
Some very impressive and good people had linked to this blog, including the now celebrated Alex Ross, and I felt in danger. Even that young fellow at the coolly named, Tears of a Clownsilly (easily young enough to be my son) writes better and is amazingly more erudite then I could ever be (hey, his music is kind of likable too!). Then there is always the fine writing of Jonathan and Phil to intimidate me into silence (and also young compared to my 55 years). I only came to this academic life after many years as a money and beauty driven practitioner. My new academic self was best described by Kafka:
He runs after facts like a beginner learning to skate, who is furthermore practising somewhere where it is forbidden.My study is too much that of a dilettante, I have very little discipline. I read (non-fiction) with a hopeful resentment, that something will solve my problem quickly. I only make mental notes, which quickly drain out of my ears onto my pillow when I sleep at night, waking to have completely forgotten the exciting new something I had found just the night before. Sometimes I stumble upon a dog-ear pointing towards a no longer graspable "eureka!" moment.
I like to collect though, books and journal articles, thesis and private pressings, CDs, DVDs I want them all, and search them out like a Columbo, zig-zagging ("serpentine, serpentine") through footnotes and bibliographies. But possessing a book that one has skimmed, formed an opinion of and put on a shelf for some future date, is not knowledge.
I AM on to something though, but I will probably spin in my sufic shroud until someone, coming from another direction, says it better then I ever could. Right now I have Marc Leman's book shining a great big light on my back, like a bus load of tourists following a guide down a cave, surprising a lonely spelunker who imagined he had found an unknown chamber. We are both following after a legendary fellow named Gibson, who plumbed these parts with his eyes, a while ago, now.
So there so
21 comments:
Welcome back to the blogosphere, Peter.
I realise it takes a while for one to get their voice back, but this is ridiculous.
So I'll say it -- in response to this entry: "And so?"
You're a bit too old to be feeling coy, my friend. If you're going to tease us, at least do so with three or four entries. Hey, you might even find blogging and 'having a life' are not mutually exclusive.
And...let it be said, I have always found your criticism worthy of a desire to emulate. Screw the others. They are, after all, other people. Your voice is your own.
Speak up and out, man!
(Whether you get back to it now or later, Peter, you can always rely on us popping in to check up on you. We might have lost many things this last half century or so, but hope ain't one of them.)
Welcome back, PtO.
So. If you consider your commentary shallow, etc., what does that say about those of us who find them anything but shallow, hm? Keep checkin' in, buddy!
Elaine, Mike and MaryB, all dear blogging friends, I am sorry if I implied that I would be back to regular blogging, as I shan't (humph :-p). But there well may be moments when I JISSCANNAHELPMYSELF! WOW! (hit me) WOW!
Now talk amongst yourselves... until some future date again (or when the drugs kick in OHGOODGODALMIGHTY! HUH! I GOTS THE FEELIN'HUH! (hit me)... please... schwew.... close one).
(Oh Doctor?... I think my meds need adjustment again... Huh?.... Oh.... OK)
Like the others, I pop around now and then to see if you have left a trail of crumbs. Reading this post I first thought, he's back. But by the time it ended, it felt more like you had just stopped by to take a leak. Your comment here confirms the latter. I think. Hope you feel better. But more than that, I join with the others in saying we will welcome you back when you are ready. There is a vacuum where you were...
stop with the age already. you Obviously spend waaaaaay too much time in CA. must i go through the list of writers who didn't start writing until middle to late life? or academics for that matter?
i happen to know that you come from a family of academics And writers, so you can't bullshit me.
i don't think phil tagg is often mistaken...
now i'm gonna go listen to some music. something you music experts have quite forgotten how to do.
"missing you" - christie moore version.
(@Golby: looking good!)
dude.
I always knew you were a fraud poodle, that is why I loved your writings! You were a good fraud, and you are a good quitter. You see - you are good at everything!
It's a bird.
It's a plane.
No, it's ...
an Internet mem.
My apologies.
The peace of fact about to celebrated Alex Ross, and felt in danger,picture is just beautiful.
__________________
BA Dissertation
Hi Peter, I am certainly not the first one to ask you about this but I have been looking for this song for 15 years now, on and off, Inner Mounting Motion that you composed for Highlander series. It cannot be found on the internet and I am hoping that you can make my dream come true :) Thanks, Andrei
Just a click away, under its more proper title....
Is that Bill Roper with the sousaphone?
Cheers man, you made my day, thanks for the link.
Who's the female singer anyway? Sounds like a French accent. This would have been a great hit back in the 1990s the golden days of euro dance.
It is Laura Creamer, one of the regular session singers on the show. And she was a great sport about it because it was complex (dropped beats etc. on account of things happening in the show). I wrote the lyrics the morning of the session, after reading a HL fan, web bulletin board. At the time, the show was shifting about its syndication locations, so there was much talk about where to find the broadcast of the beloved object. "Barb" was a major contributor, writing about a dream she had.
"Barb went to an island, for the air
there she met a man with long dark hair
he looked like someone from a book she read
she felt a strange desire, to lose her head
Let's go far away and always stay
where we are happy
When we're lost we go online and always find
where we are happy.
etc.
Oh yeah, second verse is about AL (the star) and his sitting on the fence about renewing for the sixth season.
it is something like,
He held up his hand and said "five is grand"
it's a good number
If it is six it's like a sword
my head hangs under"
chorus
Thanks Peter. I always believed that the sixth season was an unnecessary agony. Anyone could tell that Adrian Paul wanted out of the show by the end of season five. He barely shows up in episodes of season six. But anyway the song is great and it should have been released at least on one of the two highlander soundtrack CDs by Roger Bellon.
And thank you Mr/Ms Unknown... if I am honest (don't make me be honest now ;-) ), it does feel nice to hear that you enjoy it. We film/tv music people mostly work so much under the radar, that we... well I, grow a thick skin and lack of expectation for any comment at all. So, your comments do make me happy in a surprised, almost embarrassed way.
Actually most Highlander fan love that song, it has been some kind of mystery in the community in the past 15 years, because the song was never released and we all tried to get our hands on the song. Most of us started with the lyrics and tried to google them in search for clues, you should see what we came up with by listening to the background music in the episode, nothing like the real lyrics, lol, but still fun. Anyways, most of us were teenagers back in the '90s, we basically grew up with it and although the show might look cheap now we hold it dear. I also believe that music is what makes a movie special, makes it stand out, gives it emotional muscle, so I respect your work.
Best,
Andrei
Post a Comment