What Superhero Movie Fatigue?
I’m all in on this one, mostly because the FF was one of my favorite comics as a kid. I mean, Ralph Ineson is Galactus? Come on!
Pachel-Rebellion
We’ve discussed Pachelbel’s annoying Canon, one of the most loved and hated of works. Here’s a version I can almost get behind. This is played by some early music specialists (who are good when they stick to early music) in a way Pachelbel would recognize, and unlike the arrangement you usually hear, it actually moves along. On the other hand, the lush, syrupy version heard in waiting rooms, elevators, and businesses seeking an ambience of upscale exclusivity, is a 1960’s arrangement by the French conductor Jean-François Paillard. It doesn’t move; it just sits there and oozes. And it takes way too long considering it’s the same damn thing over and over. It’s a heavily romanticized take on a baroque piece, sort of equivalent to Muzak Beatles.
When the early music version was released, some purchasers angrily returned it because they wanted the jewelry store version.
While writing this, I was trying to remember what TV ads featured the Canon. I incorrectly remembered it as being in one of the Grey Poupon ads. A quick YouTube search revealed that one of those ads used part of one of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. When I arrive in the Great Beyond, J.S. Bach is going to KICK MY ASS. Because the Canon is still trash; it’s just way better trash when played fast.
This Is Cool
Yeah, I’m a dork.
I’m A Sucker For A Good Documentary
Out on 4/20, of course!
And also …
Local Boy Makes Good
MJ was last year’s reluctant golden boy. I wore the record out, and love this video. He’s from Asheville, so my kid and I went to his record release at a record store and I saw him two nights at the Orange Peel.
Latin Football Cheers
Football season is over of course, but you can use these for any sport. It’s not like Latin had a real equivalent for “touchdown” anyway.
Sequimini, sequimini, facite ut pilam relinquat!
Pursue them, pursue them, make them relinquish the ball!
Illos repellite, expellite, compellite ad fugiendum!
Repel them, expel them, compel them to retreat!
Utinam vincamus!
Oh, would that we would score!
Volebamus atque volemus pilam trans metas deponi!
We have been wanting and shall continue to want a touchdown!
Those are from Latin For All Occasions, by Henry Beard, a Classics major who went on to co-found National Lampoon. For years people gave me books like that.
Here’s a bonus (under “LATIN AT THE AIRPORT”) that might come in handy as we enter the imperial era:
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside, plebeians! I am on imperial business!
Tap Two
Spinal Tap II began production last spring, and director Rob Reiner is letting fans know what the band’s members have been up to in the 40 years since This Is Spinal Tap came out.
“Nigel [Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest] has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that,” Reiner explained in a recent interview with Empire. “David St. Hubbins [played by Michael McKean] has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder.’ He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.”
“Derek [Smalls, played by Harry Shearer] is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world – the whole history of glue – and he shows me around,” he added, “He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée.”
Reiner also explained that the idea for the sequel came when Tony Hendra, who played Spinal Tap’s manager Ian Faith in the original, died in 2021. “[W]e came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance,” he said. “She thinks initially, ‘Well, this is not really worth anything…’ But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”
Uncanny X-Men Pinball
I’m excited about this one. It’s fun living through this new pinball golden age.