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  • Top 10 Movies & Albums of the Week (2013)   1 hour 59 min ago

    Damn basically a 9 for The Killer? I have not seen it in awhile but remember it being great, but not as good as Hard Boiled, but better than A Better Tomorrow (which is so so cheesy watching it back).
    What makes it a 9 in your opinion as I am intruiged and will definitely give it another watch as I am on a big Asian film kick at the moment, funnily enough starting after a Jean-Claude Van Damme essay I wrote for university which mentioned Hard Target in detail!

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  • Greatest Opera Things   1 day 3 hours ago

    Zacharyyyyyyyy!! Now that I have your attention, I'm going to pass this comment off to my pal B.H. Haggin:

    "But wonderful as [Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, and The Magic Flute] are, they are surprassed by what is heard in The Marriage of Figaro: the three-hour outpouring of incandescent invention--miraculous in its varied loveliness, expressiveness, characterization, dramatic point and wit--that is one of the supreme wonders achieved on this earth by human powers. Nor do I mean only the vocal invention: Figaro surpasses the other operas in orchestral writing... with its three-hour running fir of comment that creates the atmosphere of comedy in which even the serious things happen. And in this connection I will mention Tovey's observation that in the G-minor Symphony Mozart's musical language is, as it is in fact everywhere else, that of operatic comedy--by which Tovey doesn't mean that what is said in this language is humorous: one often, he says, finds the language of comedy the only dignified expression for the deepest feelings. It is in this manner that they are often expressed by Mozart--the result being the ambiguity that is on of his outstanding characteristics...

    ...Three hours have been filled with the orchestra's running fire of comment, which has continued to the last to create the atmosphere for comedy for even serious happenings: even in the hush of amazement and wonder produced by the Countess's entrance the violins have softly chattered their amusement. But now at last there is an end to all this--a moment's silence; and when the Count begins his Contessa, perdono we hear music which speaks of the sublimity of human forgiveness--music which, after what has come before, is overwhelming. It becomes even more overwhelming when it is taken up by the entire group, and when it is carried to a point of superearthly exaltation. Then, in the silence which follows, solemn octaves of the strings gently ease us down to earth again--and to the bustle and fanfares of the final curtain of the operative comedy. The passage lasts only a few minutes; but those three or four minutes, coming after the three hours, create the most wonderful moment I can recall in opera."

    He goes on much longer, describing the sublimity of various passages, but I'll leave it at that. I'd add my own two cents but I'm at a total loss. I'd note that I'm sure it would help a tremendous amount to actually see the opera, and follow the storyline, but even just the music without any sense of the narrative is beyond satisfying. Three hours of sheer genius.

  • Films Seen: Listology Scoreboard 2013   1 day 12 hours ago

    Update #15 (29 April) - First update in two weeks. Puzzgal more firmly in first place, with 24 film more than mightysparks. Changes in the top 10: tom_elce (4->3), rwebb (3->4), Ultimo Lee (7->6), kaplan (6->7), guardianryoga (10->8), robear61 (8->10). Seven players still with an average of more than 1 film/day. I saw eleven films the past two weeks and lost one place: I'm 7th now.

  • 10 Movies I'd Take to a Deserted Island   1 day 13 hours ago

    I save only the Godfathers and Goodfellas.

  • Songs featuring Monkeys in the Lyrics/Title   4 days 3 hours ago

    A few weeks ago I made a playlist by searching my own collection for songs with "monkey" in the title. I wanted to find more songs for the playlist, so I Googled and found this page, which will help a lot. But you're still missing 6 of the 8 songs I found in my own collection!

    Code Monkey - Jonathan Coulton
    God's Monkey - Robert Fripp and David Sylvian
    Man Or Monkey - Skeleton Crew
    Monkey Mind - Levin Torn White
    Year of the Monkey - Sufjan Stevens
    Steel Monkey - Jethro Tull

    (The other two were "Shock the Monkey" and "Everybody's Got Something To Hide etc.")

  • Songs with days of the week in the title, please add more!   4 days 6 hours ago

    Maroon 5 Sunday morning
    Dave Dobbyn Outlook for Thursday
    911 Friday night

  • Most Beautiful Women in prime   5 days 2 hours ago

    :) only doing my time period.

  • Most Beautiful Women in prime   5 days 5 hours ago

    What? No Margaret Thatcher?

  • Favorite Music   6 days 6 hours ago

    Proust, unsurprisingly, wrote beautifully about music, and not just La sonate de Vinteuil. In the following passage he may as well be writing about Toscanini:

    "At the Conservatoire concert yesterday, the pianist in the Mozart concerto was Saint-Saëns. Coming away, one met many people who had been disappointed and who, not knowing why this was so, gave different reasons for it; he had played too fast, he had played without expression, the music hadn't suited him. Well, here is the reason: it was because it had been truly beautiful. For true beauty is the only thing that cannot respond to what a romantic imagination anticipates. Everything else lives up to those preconceived ideas: dexterity is amazing, vulgarity, soothing, sensuousness, thrilling, claptrap, dazzling. But beauty which from the beginning of all things has been joined to truth in an eternal friendship has not got all these charms at its disposal.

    In Saint-Saëns' playing there were no pianissimos where you feel you'll faint if they go on any longer, and which are cut off just in the nick of time by a forte, no broken chords sending instantaneous shivers down your back, none of those fortissimos which leave you bruised from head to foot, as if you had been surf-bathing, none of those pianist's writhings and tossed back locks of hair, which infect the purity of music with the sensuality of the dance, which appeal to the listener's senses, to her idle fancies, and supply her with an element of pleasure, and a reason for enthusiasm, the framework of what she will remember and the substance of what she will afterwards talk about. There was none of this in Saint-Saëns' playing. But his playing was regal. Now kings do not make their appearance wearing golden crowns and being carried in palanquins on slaves' shoulders. It is by the way they bow, smile, hold out a hand, offer a chair, ask a question, or reply, that great kings, like great actors, can be recognised. It is the parvenu who is stuck up, the charlatan who shows off. But the king's grace and nobility are so natural to him that his nobility is no more astonishing to us than the nobility of an oak-tree nor his grace than the grace of a rose-wand."

  • Top 10 Movies & Albums of the Week (2013)   6 days 8 hours ago

    Yay. I was afraid that sounded really really stupid, actually.

  • Favourite Classical Musics   6 days 8 hours ago

    Only in snippits but I really really have to get around to it. Machaut's great.

  • MEDIA LOG 2013   6 days 8 hours ago

    6/10, I suppose?
    I guess for it to be a top-notch four-track EP I'd cut it down to
    -She Found Now
    -Only Tomorrow
    -New You
    -Wonder 2.

    Or something like that.

  • A Clone of theduckthief's Ultimate Reading Compilation   6 days 9 hours ago

    It was fantastic! I had no idea the actual story was so interesting, and all of the extra information Berton adds in to flesh out the story and "set the stage" is a testament to his skill as a writer.

  • Ultimate Classic House List (1984-1989)   6 days 15 hours ago

    it's Elements from Danny Tenaglia.

  • Books I Cannot Live Without   6 days 17 hours ago

    I have not. Are they as good?

  • Greatest Classical Music Works of All Time (in-progress)   6 days 23 hours ago

    Great thanks, I will, soon. I keep thinking that there's gotta be a better version of Schubert's 9th that I haven't heard yet, somewhere. I'll check it out.

  • The 50 Greatest Male Singers Ever   1 week 1 day ago

    JIM MORRISON!! Legend..Put him on second right behind Freddy :)

  • The 50 Greatest Male Singers Ever   1 week 1 day ago

    Pink Floyds David Gilmour and Roger Waters!! You forgot about Great Britain which I prefer!!! except Nirvana!

  • The 50 Greatest Male Singers Ever   1 week 1 day ago

    Of course Freddy Mercury and George Michael... Its diffreance between singer and song writter or...But anyway Frank Sinatra doesn't deserve number 1..cmon..do you know anything about the music..he's all name

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum Essential Cinema (+ 2008 addition)   1 week 1 day ago

    Well, after some discussion on the ICM-forum and some extra info, I decided to list the French version.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum Essential Cinema (+ 2008 addition)   1 week 1 day ago

    I've got a problem with one entry on this list. I used to list "Tavaszi zápor" (1932), which is also listed on the Rosenbaum list on MUBI. However, other sources list "Marie, légende hongroise" (1933), for example on icheckmovies.com. Both movies are actually the same, but shot in a different language. The first one is Hungarian, the second French. It's unclear which version should be on the list. If anyone has the original book by Rosenbaum, please look it up and let me know if he says anything about it. For now, I listed them together on one line.

  • Greatest Classical Music Works of All Time (in-progress)   1 week 3 days ago

    If you ever find time (I realize you have a lot on your plate right now!), give Furtwängler's 1951 recording of Schubert's 9th a spin. It may increase your already huge appreciation for that work.

  • A Clone of theduckthief's Ultimate Reading Compilation   1 week 3 days ago

    I just saw that you read "The Last Spike". I'd never read Berton before but found this enjoyable because it was engaging. What did you think?

  • What misscurly read in 2013...   1 week 3 days ago

    Eep I've only read 14 books this year! According to Goodreads, I am at least 6 behind my goal. I've been going for quality over quantity this year, but despite choosing many well-loved and perennial classics, I haven't come across any five-star fiction. Goals aside, the whole point of this year is to find some new favourites... and I have not even come close! Well,back to work!