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John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness was on the Sci Fi channel in the wee hours last night. Carpenter is one my favorite movie directors but not without flaws. Found this commentary on IMDb and present it intact:
You gotta love liquid Satan!, 11 June 2005

Author: greg Humphrey (greg(at)gbhumphrey(dot)com) from United States

OK what's more scary, liquid Satan or 1987 fashion? Jameson Parker's mustache is impossible to tear your eyes away from- YES!! And the form fitting Izod! Oh my god! John Carpenter's production values have a definite sameness between his films. If you aren't paying attention you wouldn't know if you were watching "Assualt on Precint 13", "The Thing" or "Halloween". The look, the music, the acting... not much range. However it's a comfortable spot. You don't have to think or be involved too much, Carpenter is taking care of the action. The characters are not too deep, the Chinese teacher spends the first 5 minutes of the movie reciting fortune cookie philosophy, for example. Donald Pleaseeance is a scary guy... period! Alice Cooper ( welcome to MY nightmare) even with his pancake makeup isn't as scary as Pleaseance. The cast of students are typical. Geek, Jock, Brainy chick, Vulnerable chick, but no super hot chick. Interesting, I guess the studio left him alone on this one. The tension is a slow build, way too slow for today's audience. I mean, it's a BOTTLE OF LIQUID Satan! He's probably going to get out and break things! We know that! Get on with it!

- tom moody 9-19-2005 4:24 am [link] [7 comments]



"Riveter" [mp3 removed].

This piece is constructed from overlayed (licensed) midi demos from a couple of different genres; the samples are from an 80s style drum machine but the most interesting, sculpted notes come from Native Instruments' "Machine Kit," sound design by Smyglyssna.* Layering rhythmically incompatible midi files together initially sounds confusing and not too enjoyable, so the "art" is separating the files by pitch and spreading them around over several minutes' playing time in a proportioned Steve Reichian sort of way, giving each sound the maximum space and "surprise value" as it is introduced.

This is part art, part (hackless) game modding, but also a kind of reporting: many of the licensed sounds used are state of the art electronic noises, elaborately manufactured and processed as described in the NI product notes and meant to be used in every kind of music production from TV soundtracks to basement-made dance music. They aren't that interesting when you just hit "note on," though--someone has to write tunes for them, or put the art frame around them so you can hear them with greater delectation.

*According to his notes, he made the Machine Kit excusively with the sounds of the Elektron MachineDrum: "some of them have been re-sampled after being treated with BATTERY, others have been pampered with external filters, distortion and EQ."

- tom moody 9-18-2005 9:42 pm [link] [add a comment]