Category: Culture

6 degrees of…

[audio:http://home.wanadoo.nl/titusvanmierlo/Pirates%20Of%20The%20Caribean%20Soundtrack%20-%2015%20-%20He’s%20A%20Pirate.mp3]

I’m sure you recognize the above song from Pirates of the Caribbean. I know I did, when I heard it in The Rock earlier tonight. I’ve got a pretty good ear, I think, and recognized the song immediately as it played during a scene where Nick Cage was running to disarm a missile. So what do these two movies have in common?

1) Jerry Bruckheimer produced both of these movies. Probably not directly responsible, but its a safe bet he brought in person #2.

2) Hans Zimmer – Although Nick Glennie-Smith is the credited composer of The Rock, Hans Zimmer appears as ‘composer: 2 themes, music producer, score arranger.’ Klaus Badelt is the composer of the first of the Pirates movies (and the song above), but Hans Zimmer composed the second two movies (Badelt is not credited anywhere in either of those).

More curiosities: in the reviews of the first Pirates movie soundtrack (composed by Badelt, produced by Zimmer) on Amazon, people recognized similarities to Gladiator and Crimson Tide (both composed by Zimmer).

So did Nick Glennie-Smith originally write the song for The Rock, or was that the music Hans Zimmer was credited for? If Zimmer wrote it, then why is that song attributed to Klaus Badelt? And why isn’t Badelt credited in the second and third Pirates movies, when his song is clearly used? The obvious answer would be that Zimmer, not Badelt, wrote the song. But, far more evidence points to Badelt.

I’m not going to draw any conclusions, because I don’t see any. I’m not trying to expose anything, just trying to satisfy my curiosity. So there’s some useless detective work for you.

Big Talk

The Charmer by The Family Grove Company
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/fgc2007-05-27.shnf/fgc2007-05-27-t09_64kb.mp3]

So I went to my cousin’s wedding this weekend. Turns out I don’t like weddings all that much. I should clarify: traditional weddings. Formal affairs with lots of things done for no reason other than they have been done for years and years. Silly.

Anyway, today I was considering the reception, where I met a lot of people who may/may not be related to me. I talked to a lot of them, and forgot almost everything they said. I’m not big on small talk. Finding out what people are doing, how they are, how their mother is, just doesn’t interest me. I don’t care. So I don’t ask those questions. When people ask me, I tell them that there isn’t much happening. My answers aren’t longer than a few sentences. And its the truth. I’m not doing much this summer. But what got me thinking about this was a guy named Mike.

I think he was a friend of my cousin, but I’m not sure. Anyway, he talked to a lot of people at our table, and was really pleasant. A good guy to talk to. Why? Because he asked, and listened, and responded relevently. Simple. But everything that he was talking about falls into the category of small talk. I was thinking about how he could possibly be interested in these things in the lives of people he doesn’t even know.

I find people I don’t know facinating, but not because I don’t know what they’re doing, but because I don’t know how they think. Everyone has a different philosophy on life, and that is what I like to take from any conversation I have with someone I’m just meeting.

What prompted me to write this blog post was the biography on Mister Rogers I read last night. He did the same thing Mike did, but on a much larger scale. Mike and Mister Rogers reminded me of a lot of the principles from Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People. If you haven’t read it, I would suggest it.

FOMO

Better Change Your Mind by Apollo Sunshine
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/apollosun2007-04-22.nak300.flac16f/apollosun2007-04-22t01_64kb.mp3]

So the schedule for Bonnaroo 2007 is up, and it gives me a pretty different impression than what I got from just looking at the artist lineup.

There are a number of conflicting sets, so I’ll either need to miss some or all of a large number of artists. Which is probably ok. I knew it would happen, coming to a festival as large as Bonnaroo, but I’d rather see entire sets. There are a few bands who I’ll see no matter what. But otherwise, it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of tent-hopping.

Here is what I’m planning on seeing, but I’m going to try and be as flexible as possible.

A few comments:
– I will see The String Cheese Incident and Keller Williams (WMD’s) no matter what. This is SCI’s last year touring with Bill Nershi, so I want to see them while I still can. And Keller is touring with his ‘dream band’ so I’m not going to miss that either.
– The first conflict on my list is The Black Keys vs. an acoustic Tea Leaf Green set. I’m leaning towards TLG, because the tent is going to be packed, so showing up half way into it isn’t a great option.
– The next conflict isn’t one that I’m debating, just one I’m upset about. String Cheese vs. STS9 vs. TBD (superjam?) vs. Mago featuring Billy Martin & John Medeski. I’ll stay for the whole SCI set, because its likely that STS9 will still be playing. If that other set is indeed the superjam, then I shall be sad. But not too sad, because SCI, Martin and Medeski will be on stage at that same time, so the superjam won’t be too amazing. I’ll keep telling myself that.
– Next is Hot Tuna and Ziggy Marley vs. Railroad Earth and acoustic Warren Haynes. I’m thinking I’ll end up at the later, because they’re both in the same tent, and Railroad will be good, but Warren Haynes will absolutely pack that tent. It would be good to be there early.
– Keller Williams vs. Spoon vs. Ween vs. Ben Harper vs. Franz Ferdinand. I’ll see Keller but I’m sad about the bands I’ll miss.
– The Flaming Lips vs. Gov’t Mule vs. Galactic w/lots of guests. Fuck. These were three bands I really wanted to see. Odds are I’ll make TFL my priority, and check in on Mule once its over. They’ll still be jammin, I’m pretty sure of that. I’d like to see Galactic, but I just don’t think it’ll happen.
– Wolfmother vs. T-Bone Burnett vs. Flight of The Conchords plus Demetri Martin. This one is really damn hard. I have no idea what I’m going to do here.

I think those are the big ones. Otherwise its just overlap, and I’ll probably just catch a little of this, and a little of that. All in all, if it works out well, I’ll be seeing over 30 artists over the course of 4 days. :D

Still Trying

From PostSecret:

—–Email Message—–
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 11:45 PM
Subject: Five Dollar Bill

I work at a bank and upon counting my five dollar bills the other day I stumbled upon this one.(picture attached) I couldn’t have found it at a better time as that was exactly how I was feeling that day.

I just want to let whoever it was know… you’re not alone in trying your hardest and still not feeling good enough. Your secret now hangs in a frame in my room. Thank you for sharing not only your secret but also my secret. It feels good to know that I’m not alone.

~Still trying

Sorry, its the best I could do