The Hypocrisy

In the past few months an increasingly large amount of dirt has been revealed about the sexual assaults committed by singer Michael Taitt over the course of 20 years or more, particularly when he was the lead singer of the Newsboys (which he stepped down from just as the allegations started appearing). The most full accounts of these incidents have been reported at the Roys Report. From the way in which the people who were his victims or those who held the victims' confidence, it sounds like this was an "open secret" that many people near Taitt knew about, but it was kept from the public.

And that's... depressingly familiar. So often when a Christian leader of any type (singer, pastor, etc.) has their scandals made public, we find out there was some kind of cover-up going on. Sometimes the victims themselves don't want the incidents to be made public or the leader's entourage/ministry board work hard to keep the allegations from coming to light for fear of what it would do to the leader's ministry; despite the obvious hypocrisy at play, it's seen as better to accept and conceal the leader's sins rather than confess their sins and repent.

It reminded me of Michael English. Back when I was obsessed with Christian music, watching Christian music videos nearly all day long (back when there was the 24-hour Christian 'Z' music channel) and reading every magazine with at the very least a column on the subject, I absorbed a lot in those pre-internet days. Yet I didn't know what went on to Michael English; for a while, he was a really big rising name in Christian music, his video played all the time, he won four Dove Awards, then he disappeared in 1994.

I didn't find out what had happened to him until he popped up on an episode of Entertainment Tonight in 1996; while promoting his new career as a "secular" music artist, ET went over his past and I learned for the first time that in 1994 - just a week after he won all those Dove Awards - he returned the awards and revealed he'd been having an extra-marital affair.

What amazed me was that it was like a different kind of cover-up took effect; he was basically erased from Christian music. I didn't read so much as an angry editorial denouncing him (though I'm certain many must have been written at the time). Instead, his music and videos were taken out of circulation and no one talked about him.

All of which makes me think, we Christians are the worst at talking about sin. We might be willing to concede that, "oh, yeah, we're all sinners." But if you're a sinner - and a very public figure in the church - then your choice seems to either take the English path-- be "ghosted" by your fellow Christians -- or take the Taitt path-- widen the circle of sinners by enlisting conspirators to cover-up for you until it's inevitably made public.

Maybe if we didn't "ghost" people who own up publicly about their sins, we wouldn't think it necessary to form vast conspiracies to "protect" the public from learning about popular people's frailties. But as it is, these cover-ups do real harm to the mission of the church by taking one man's sin and expanding it to corporate size. To an outsider, it must seem that we're all hypocrites who claim to be sinless, yet full of leaders who are constantly being exposed as having committed acts that anyone else would be prosecuted for.

RIP: Lalo Schifrin

There aren't many composers working in film today whose credits date back to the 1960s - and now there's one fewer. Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin passed away last week, aged 93.

Lalo Schifrin composed the scores for a number of Steve McQueen's movies - including the phenomenal music in Bullitt (1968). But the whole reason I know his name - and I'm sure the same is true for many - is that he composed the original television score for Mission: Impossible.

He composed a few other television scores like Mannix, but that supremely cool Mission: Impossible theme tune was something special and it's proven resilient thanks to the feature films, ensuring Schirfin has a legacy; he will be remembered.

Rest in peace, Mr. Schifrin.

"Even if..." Rend Collective thoughts

Over a week ago, I went to see a live concert by the band Rend Collective.

In my teenage years I was fascinated by what was then called "Contemporary Christian Music." Particularly from the 1980s-90s there was effort to create a kind of Christian alternative to popular 'secular' music. I gradually lost interest in CCM after high school and by the early 21st century, CCM slowly faded away.

Of course, it faded away because something else had taken its place; the new vogue was for Christian musicians to create worship songs that could be replicated in churches worldwide, rather than supporting a parallel entertainment industry.

I came to enjoy the new wave of Christian worship songs, but I thought the days of me purchasing Christian song albums was well in the past. I felt the new songs were suitable for church worship but weren't the sort of thing I would listen to around the house.

Enter Rend Collective, an Irish worship band who fell neatly into the new wave of worship. My then-worship leader Rob brought them into my home church, principally through the song "My Lighthouse." That song on its own won me over-- it's a happy, toe-tapping ditty. I wound up getting into the band's albums largely on the strength of that tune (I chose it as the theme song of the Cursillo weekend I led).

But while I love the high-energy found in many of their songs, the concert helped me articulate what I really enjoy about Rend Collective - and what makes them different from the CCM of my teen years - is that they're real. At the concert, lead performer Chris Llewellyn noted that the Psalms found in the Bible aren't simply songs of joy - many of them are songs of lament and we need to have a place for lament in our contemporary worship.

The aforementioned Rob seemed to agree with that; Rend Collective's song "Weep with Me" - a melancholy song of lament - became a song he frequently performed at our church (and I think Rob performed it at every funeral I attended after he added it to his repertoire). Songs like "Weep with Me" give us a place to express our grief and sadness. That's contrary to so much of the old CCM, which didn't want to act as though tough times existed - if they did, they were all in the past, not in the present or the future.

And Llewellyn took time to talk about his own mental health struggles with depression. Given that the band was performing in an Alliance church - and among all churches, the Evangelicals are most offended by Christians talking about mental health - that was bold of him. The band is real about the troubles that exist in life, the troubles they themselves experience.

Recently, my favourite song of theirs has been "Hallelujah Anyway." Rend Collective performed it at the concert that night; I performed it myself last weekend. What draws me to the song is that it's a song about going through problems yet remaining optimistic. Maybe it's a small thing, but being able to sing lyrics like "Even if my daylight never dawns; even if my breakthrough never comes; even if I'll fight to bring you praise" has a different kind of power than the usual triumphalism I find in Christian worship.

So yeah, I have a lot of time for Rend Collective.

The Trend of Christmas Music on the Radio

As the Christmas season has just recently ended, I'm reminded of a remark someone made about the kind of music played on the radio around Christmas time - that it's the only time of year you're likely to hear lyrics such as "whoop-de-do and hickordy dock, don't forget to hang up your sock" on the radio. Not only is the singer unashamed to sing those lyrics, the listener is unashamed to listen to them.

I have friends and relatives who complain about how quickly our culture is saturated by Christmas advertising and programming. Certainly this past year, the radio was playing 24-hour Christmas songs as of November 1st, but most radio stations stopped playing Christmas songs around December 27th. Never mind that those famous 12 days of Christmas start on December 25th, just as there's a rush to start celebrating Christmas early, there's also a rush to stop celebrating well before New Year's.

What we call "Christmas" songs aren't even all concerned with Christmas - some are simply winter songs (ie, "Winter Wonderland") that, in a snowy city like mine, would play just as well in January/February as they do in November/December. But once Christmas Day is past, local radio stations seem to forget it's winter outside and go back to playing the same type of music heard in August.

And that's what I find really remarkable about the 2-month marathon of Christmas programming that I hear on the radio. The other 10 months of the year, pop radio stations play love songs, break-up songs and get-back-together songs. That is, songs about romantic relationships. But for 2 months each year they temporarily stop and instead play songs that are (mostly) about a non-romantic love for others - love for strangers, love for the world and the giving of gifts.

Call it hokum, schmaltz or treacle, but for 2 months radio stations set aside their typical fare to celebrate friends, family and humankind. So although I expect in the future I'll continue to hear complaints about how early those Christmas songs appear on the radio, I won't be joining that chorus.

Hamilton thoughts

I kept meaning to write something on this blog on Hamilton since the video of the musical was released on Disney+ last year, but something else related to the musical kept coming up -- books, the album -- so I kept putting it off. I think I'm finally ready to share my thoughts.

I didn't know much about Hamilton going in to the musical. One of my friends had played one of the songs for me once, but it was one of the King George songs ("You'll Be Back") and without much context it didn't make a great impression on me. This was the same friend who had previously championed Robocop: The Musical and Silence of the Lambs: The Musical, so I was left with the impression that this was a mock-musical, not a legitimate production.

By the time it arrived on Disney+ I had heard many murmurings about how good it was supposed to be. I like to pride myself that while the average American doesn't know too much about Canada, I know quite a lot about the USA. Still, I never had to learn about Alexander Hamilton, so I knew almost nothing about him going into the musical; I knew he died in a duel with Aaron Burr, but I didn't even know what the duel was about. Now, post seeing the musical, listening to the album and having read three books about Alexander Hamilton, I'm in a better place not only in terms of understanding him but in understanding the history around the Revolutionary War in general.

The curious thing about seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton on Disney+ is that I felt simultaneously that I would have enjoyed seeing it on the big screen - but at the same time knew I would never have paid money to watch a "mere" recorded live performance in a cinema. Disney+ made accessing the movie easy as I went from being interested in it only to learn why it was such a "big deal" to it becoming the most enjoyable film I saw in 2020; I've seen it four times now.

And of course there's an entire cottage industry of books about Alexander Hamilton. I read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the book credited with inspiring the musical. I read Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father a graphic novel by Jonathan Hennessey and Justin Greenwood. And I just finished Duel with the Devil by Paul Collins, a book about Hamilton and Burr serving as defense lawyers in a murder case (it would make a great Rick Geary graphic novel).

With all the reading I've done I do appreciate that the musical took some liberties with Hamilton's life but then, the real Hamilton didn't rap, so it never pretended to be authentic. The three songs sung by King George do get a lot of attention from fans and (taken in-context) they're a lot of fun, but I was most impressed by Daveed Diggs, who portrayed Lafayette & Thomas Jefferson. He didn't have a lot to do in the the first act as Lafayette, but his Jefferson was a lot of fun in the second act; his performance in the Disney+ performance is so perfect I was bit put-out to discover in the album recording his delivery of the line "Because I'm the President" (from "The Election of 1800") was a lot less funny than the version in the video.

The songs are extremely catchy; many times I've found the lyrics of "My Shot," "The Shuyler Sisters", "Right Hand Man," and "What'd I Miss" appear in my head. The different song styles, the recurring lyrics that define or contrast the characters' journeys. It's a rich musical and I keep returning to it to find I like it even more. It's fun, educational and emotionally absorbing.

RIP: Ennio Morricone

Film composer Ennio Morricone passed away today, aged 91. He's probably best-known for his score to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Usually when I saw his name in books and articles about film, it was that particular score which was being referenced.

And yet he did so. Much. More. Than. That. In fact, IMDB lists 520 scores to his name! Two of his Italian films were mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000: Operation Double 007 (1967) and Danger: Diabolik (1968).

My personal favourites are his scores to Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Thing (1982), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987)

Rest in peace, Sig. Morricone.

In Defense of "Oceans"

Yesterday my church introduced a new song to our congregation - "new" being a very relative term. "Oceans (Where My Feet May Fail)" was written by Matt Crocker, Joel Houston & Salomon Ligthelm of the band Hillsong United in 2013. It's been a popular Christian tune over the past four years; it took this long for someone in my church's worship team to suggest performing it.

The song was already on my mind because of an article I had seen on a Christian blog: "Hillsong's "Oceans" (Where This Song Fails)" by Jonathan Aigner. I did not agree with his conclusions about the song and with "Oceans" entering my church's repertoire, the time seems right to respond.

The tone of Aigner's article is very troubling for a Christian blogger speaking to a Christian audience about Christian worship. The opening paragraphs are full of snark and presume the audience already shares the blogger's opinion of the song ("If you’ve been in contemporary worship circles, you already get what I’m talking about"). He then relates an anecdote about how he first learned of the song from a teacher, including as many dismissive and condescending remarks as he can ("...I said, wanting to be supportive..." "...she probably didn't know the difference").

But then he gets into his criticisms, beginning by complaining that the song doesn't rhyme. He states "on the most basic level, this is terrible poetry," having no apparent appreciation for free verse - it is a valid form of poetry and common to contemporary worship. I understand that he doesn't like it but he presents his opinion of contemporary worship as though it were something quantifiable or canonical. His distaste for the song is evident in the anecdote about the teacher, as is the relish he takes in tearing down something he knows other people enjoy.

He goes into some lyrical analysis which is astoundingly off-base. He complains that "I thought we were trying to walk on water, which will fail of course, because we aren’t Jesus." I don't know what denomination he belongs to but it is not impossible for us to do perform the miracles of Jesus for we "can do all things through Him who strengthens." (Philippians 4:13). Further, the phrasing is "let me walk upon the waters," which is a prayer, something we want to see accomplished. He also complains about following this lyric with the phrase "take me deeper," suggesting that this indicates drowning. "Deep" is referring to a more profound understanding of Christ, not a vertical direction.

He complains next about the word "I" being too common. Amazingly, his next section complains about the use of the Spirit which is pretty important to the context of the "I"s: "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders." As well, throughout the song are the "yous" - "I will call upon Your name," "I am Yours and You are mine," "Your sovereign hand will be my guide," etc. This doesn't seem to be bad theology to me - I am not a singer, songwriter, musician or theologian but the song is talking about setting out under the direction of the Holy Spirit and that we have no borders - that the titular oceans need not impede us. As someone who has stepped out into the world (across the ocean, in fact) on mission work and has had his trust in God strengthened through those experiences I think I could pray to this song.

The blogger closes his post by noting Hillsong Church isn't currently playing "Oceans" (or another popular song of theirs "Shout to the Lord"). He presents this as some proof of the song's irrelevancy. He ignores that the reason the song has left rotation there is that the band is constantly writing new material. Songs fade in and out at churches across the world; my church does not perform the hymn "Lift High the Cross," but that's not a slight against that old ditty - it's a great hymn, but it's not quite right for the current environment of my church. It is right for other churches. One can only fit so many songs into the set lists in the course of a year!

Above all, I have to return to the tone of this blog post. Christ left us instructions for how to love each other (John 15:9-17) and to deal with those among us who sin (Matthew 18:15-20). Unfortunately, he did not address those occasions when we will wish to write snarky criticisms of our brothers and the way in which they worship. Again, I am not a theologian but I will suggest Jesus wouldn't care for it.

What's your favourite Aerosmith song, Superman?

Why Knock Christian Rock?

I recently sat down with a friend and watched the film version of Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz. I didn't expect the film to be extremely faithful to the book (the book being largely philosophical, rather than a narrative), but I'd been interested in it because of the director, Steve Taylor, who had been one of my favourite musicians in the 1990s. Subsequently, I decided to check in on what Taylor had been up to since the film wrapped and discovered he'd founded a new band: Steve Taylor and the Perfect Foil. This was quite a surprise, as Taylor hadn't recorded an album of his own for 20 years (being a director/produce/songwriter in the interim). Naturally, I bought his band's new album Goliath and over the last week I've listened to it repeatedly. It's very much in the same vein as the music he made in the 90s, and that's a good thing to me. Taylor's arch, opinionated observations about life have always struck a chord with me.

Bringing up Taylor to my brother led him to compose two blog entries related to the subject of Christian rock and his thoughts have caused me to think back on the entire phenomenon. Although I listened to a tremendous amount of Christian albums in my teen years, it's only in the last few years that I've trepidatiously returned to the genre.

It certainly helped my teenage self to see the Christian music industry as a "safe" alternative to what literally all of my peers were listening to. But like all things which have held my interest for any length of time, collection mania set in. It became about the having, not the value of the thing. I built a massive library of Christian rock albums, yet many of them received but a single audience with me before being set aside forever. It wasn't so much that I idolized the artists as I idolized the albums.

Shame of that may have played into my turning away from Christian music at the age of 20, the year in which I went to college in a new city while my family moved far to the east of the country. I broke up much of the collection before moving out and I think even the remainder (the albums I liked - notably DC Talk, Newsboys and Steve Taylor) held a modicum of shame at my old mania. I was also using the internet for the first time and had access to nonstop Old-Time Radio programs, which became my constant listening pleasure. Finally, being in college in a new city I, like so many others, wanted to develop a new identity for myself.

Part of that new identity played into my churchgoing as I deliberately turned away from the "low church" environs I'd previously preferred and into something more "high church" where the only music was traditional hymnbook with organ accompaniment. Perhaps something of secular culture had changed my thinking about Christian music; after all, non-Christians think hymnal music is, at worst, dull; but they think Christian rock is, at best, lame.

It was many years before I ventured back into a more relaxed church, the one which is my home parish today (to the extent that it was a factor in choosing where my new house would be). My church today is far less traditional than any other Anglican church I've been part of and initially the unfamiliar songs left me uneasy. But as the people - and the songs - of that church became familiar, I began to feel at home. While I can still appreciate a good hymn, I've enjoyed having a bit of Christian rock back in my life. And as I became more comfortable singing along with tunes like "My Lighthouse" (presently my favourite ditty), I began to add a few albums to my collection. I'd begun listening to music again (instrumental, either classical or film soundtracks) and found a bit of the (still-going) Newsboys or Rend Collective gave me a bit of worship time in my home.

But while the Newsboys have essentially become a worship band not too unlike the one which my able friend Rob leads, with Goliath I'm back to the sort of album I would have bought in the 90s. And while there is some nostalgia in hearing Taylor belt out tunes with his wonderfully nasal delivery, I'm finding his songs don't speak to who I was in the 90s - they speak to who I am now.

Cut down
I'm a debaser
I can't stop
It's human nature
I'm run runnin' down
Every little thing you say
'Til I get my way
-"Sympathy Vote"

It helps that Taylor has always felt free to criticize. As I said, Christian rock in the 90s was "safe." You weren't going to get exposed to harmful ideas or mores, right? But in "Smug" I heard a song about Christians with superiority complexes; in "I Want to Be a Clone" he mocked the idea of Christian conformity; and in "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good," he dared to tackle the hypocrisy behind people bombing abortion clinics. That's what "safe" music looked like to me and it expressed the idea that it was okay to comment on the unhelpful/harmful things my fellow Christians do, rather than the "Go Team Christ!" attitude seen in most places. Taylor's music did some good things for my worldview back in my teens; I'm pleased he's still got something worth hearing.

Music to My Ears: 50 Likeable Film Soundtracks

Until I met my friend Craig, I didn't give film soundtracks much consideration. Obviously, I had grown up enjoying film scores; appreciating how they enhanced the stories told by motion pictures; making that discovery which (I believe) every young person does that "gee, those John Williams movies sure sound a lot alike." I also grew up in a musical family and would watch many musicals; to this day, my family members will occasionally burst into a number from Camelot or Oliver!. But whether the film scores contained lyrics or not, some scores were etched into my permanent memory at a young age because I truly loved the films in which they were heard. That, to me, was the epitome of a great film score: an excellent movie which also has excellent music.

Then I befriended Craig and discovered he was a film score enthusiast. Craig certainly enjoys a good movie all the more if the score is up to snuff, but he is quite capable of separating the two experiences. Ergo, to Craig it didn't matter if Wing Commander stank, what mattered was the film score sounded terrific. Craig, I learned, would collect film scores based on their composers. He might purchase a film score to a movie he outright disliked; he might purchase film scores to pictures he hadn't seen, nor had any intent of ever seeing. Craig has helped me to judge film scores on their own merits and on the careers of the composers. I still prefer listening to scores of films I've seen - and liked! - but a good score is a good score.

To that end, here is a list of 50 film scores which I rather like, starting from my favourite. Much of my criteria is based on how well the score supports the picture, but some scores are so much better than their accompanying films that they truly stand apart.

1. The Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
2. Tron: Legacy by Daft Punk
3. Avatar by James Horner
4. Glory by James Horner
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by James Horner
6. The Third Man by Anton Karas
7. The Adventures of Robin Hood by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
8. Vertigo by Bernard Herrmann
9. Psycho by Bernard Herrmann
10. How to Train Your Dragon by John Powell
11. The Sea Hawk by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
12. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by Cliff Eidelman
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by Howard Shore
14. The Empire Strikes Back by John Williams
15. Star Wars by John Williams
16. Rocky by Bill Conti
17. Star Trek: First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith
18. North by Northwest by Bernard Herrmann
19. Mad Max: Fury Road by Junkie XL
20. X2: X-Men United by John Ottman
21. Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams
22. Return of the Jedi by John Williams
23. Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Jerry Goldsmith
24. Serenity by David Herman
25. Dark City by Trevor Jones
26. The Great Dictator by Charles Chaplin
27. The Thin Blue Line by Philip Glass
28. The Mission by Ennio Morricone
29. Aliens by James Horner
30. Planet of the Apes by Jerry Goldsmith
31. Hellboy by Marco Beltrami
32. The Avengers by Alan Silvestri
33. Die Hard by Michael Kamen
34. Superman by John Williams
35. The Great Escape by Elmer Bernstein
36. The Thing by Ennio Morricone
37. Skyfall by Thomas Newman
38. Captain Blood by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
39. Casablanca by Max Steiner
40. Tombstone by Bruce Broughton
41. Conan the Barbarian by Basil Poledouris
42. Being There by Johnny Mandel
43. Pete Kelly's Blues by David Buttolph & Ray Heindorf
44. Godzilla: King of the Monsters by Akira Ifukube
45. Terminator 2: Judgement Day by Brad Fiedel
46. Bullitt by Lalo Schifrin
47. The Untouchables by Ennio Morricone
48. Casino Royale by David Arnold
49. Patriot Games by James Horner
50. The Matrix Reloaded by Don Davis

RIP: James Horner

Some time ago a friend asked me if I had a copy of the score to the film Aliens. I answered in the affirmative: "Yes, I have a copy of the score to Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The joke (which he understood) was to note the similarities between the two scores, both written by James Horner. Evidently Horner had been in such a rush to complete Aliens on time that he recycled great swathes of Star Trek II in order to meet his deadline.

A month ago I happened to watch the film Wolfen, an unusual horror film which, for most of the run time, leads you into thinking you're watching a werewolf film (the antagonists turn out to be - 34 year old spoilers! - godlike wolf spirits). When the film would shift to show events from the viewpoint of the antagonists, I immediately recognized pieces of Khan's theme from Star Trek II; sure enough, Wolfen was a James Horner score, one which preceded Trek. I let my friend know about this.

Two days ago, my friend fired back by inviting me to listen to the score to Battle Beyond the Stars, which was Horner's second credited film score. Once again, you can hear arrangements which he later reused in Star Trek II! How neat!

James Horner died yesterday.

I cannot praise Horner's score to Star Trek II enough. Amusing as it is to hear pieces of that score in films he composed for either before or after that picture, it's such a perfect blend of music, from the bombastic opening titles to the menacing Khan/Reliant theme to the frantic combat music to the subdued closing. I consider Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan to be the finest Star Trek movie and Horner's music is an important, vital element in the makeup of that film.

I am also a tremendous fan of Avatar, which is not a fashionable thing to admit. Again, Horner delivered a terrific score there, without which I might not have enjoyed the film nearly as much. The soundtrack album to Avatar is the one of the most-frequently played scores in my house.

In addition to scoring some of my favourite movies, I was also very pleased to learn he and I were born on the same day of the year. No doubt that heightened my sense of affection for his art.

With Horner gone, who survives amongst Hollywood's great composers? Brian Tyler, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin and John Carpenter, I suppose (and a tip of the hat to Daft Punk).

Horner has joined the greats - other favourites of mine who have passed on such as Jerry Goldsmith, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann and Shirley Walker.

Rest in peace, Mr. Horner; your music remains vital to me.

The Legacy of Tron

In a recent article at the Guardian website, Stuart Heritage took a moment to reconsider the 2010 motion picture Tron: Legacy and why he believes the film ultimately failed to find its audience. It seems to be widely-agreed that Tron: Legacy did not satisfy its audience, despite earning $400 million at the box office.

Heritage asserted the 1982 Tron was "Star Wars for people born a year or two too late." I'm not sure what that means - I first saw Tron somewhere within a year of its release, but Star Wars was massively important to me as a child, what with the new home video & cable TV markets making the films available beyond their original theatrical release and the simple fact that 1983's Return of the Jedi hadn't even come out yet. Heritage also wrote of Tron's reputation having been "built to the point where the producers made the mistake of treating it with a bit too much respect." I have to admit, I was unaware Tron had much of a reputation by 2010 - I watched it at least once on television later in the 1980s, but that's it - I saw it twice as a child and while I had fond memories of it, it didn't mean much in my household, nor was it a film my friends reminisced about with me.

Surely there was a great following behind Tron - heck, I'm sure Krull still has a lot of fans. I do agree with Heritage's assertion about Tron's reputation being a problem in Tron; Legacy, but for a different reason; Heritage complains about many deviations from the style of the earlier film. Myself, I was simply lost for great periods of time. Tron: Legacy is certainly not a very well-plotted movie, but as I didn't commit the details of the original film to memory, I blanked out at much of the attempted exposition. Heck, I didn't remember who/what Clu was and he's essential to the sequel. Still, for all I'd forgotten of the earlier film, I did have an uneasy feeling that some of what appeared in the sequel was retconning details from before, but that's an aside.

To sum up: I think the real problem with Tron: Legacy was assuming there was a rabid following for the earlier film who were chomping at the bit to pick up the story as though 28 years hadn't passed. For the rest of us, we may have had some familiarity with Tron (uh, the one where the guy goes inside a video game, right?), but we assumed this picture would be a more-or-less self-contained sequel. Show this film to someone who hasn't seen the original and they'll surely wonder why the movie even has "Tron" in the title, given how little that character has to do with the film.

Heritage and I do agree about Bridges' odd performance in Tron: Legacy, wherein for some reason he channels "the Dude" from the Big Lebowski. I did appreciate the humour in the theater (anything which evoked an emotional reaction was welcome), but at same time... c'mon. Popular as "the Dude" performance is with audiences, there was no need to pander. Y'know, we do realize Jeff Bridges is an actor and does from time to time portray different characters. Some lampshades need not be hung.

My biggest disagreement with Heritage is over the soundtrack. He wrote: "Where there was once a machine-like hum, now there is the sort of relentlessly urgent soundbed that everyone starting ripping off The Dark Knight came out." Laying aside that the Dark Knight is perhaps my favourite soundtrack, I enjoyed the Tron: Legacy soundtrack Daft Punk developed quite a bit - it was the one element of the film my friends and I all agreed upon at the theater. Not only did I bring the soundtrack home, later I wound up with the Tron: Legacy - Reconfigured soundtrack which I enjoy even more than the original. This, to me, is the real "legacy" of the picture - some pretty good Daft Punk music. As for the picture... I saw it once. That'll probably do.

2012: a Year Which Certainly Was

2012: it began, it ended and between the two events was a great deal of middle. During this past year, I consumed a lot of media - perhaps more than I've sampled in any previous year. Although I did keep a record of everything I watched/read/listened to (because I am ridiculous), I'm only going to pause over those things which I most enjoyed... and then those I found most troubling.

2012: BOOKS

Although I consumed a lot of Sax Rohmer novels in 2012, I would feign to list any of them as amongst his best work. The most interesting fiction I read was Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac. I was already predisposed to enjoy the story because the film version is among my favourites, but I was still surprised at where the original story charts its own course, eventually parting ways with the better-known adaptation. Another revelation was the Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury Vol.1, which was certainly an appropriate tome to read during the year of Bradbury's death. Not only does the book feature very early and rare stories, but it offers a terrific analysis of how and why the youthful Bradbury's writing changed, particularly with regards to what publishers were willing to print.

The real triumphs were to be found in non-fiction; my continuing fascination with Africa led me to read Chasing the Devil by Tim Butcher, an account of his travels in Sierra Leone (read just before I visited Sierra Leone). Along with his book Blood River it gave me a terrifically grounded sense of life in two African locales. Butcher's account in Blood River of an aged grandfather in the Congo who knew more about machines than his grandchildren was the most striking illustration. I also delved into Ghosts of Medak Pocket by Carol Off based on the recommendation of a friend who said the book made him "proud to be a Canadian." I didn't quite mirror his reaction as there's more tragedy than triumph in this account of Canada's intervention during Croatia's ethnic cleansing, but it's an aspect of Canadian and world history I was ignorant of and deserved to learn. Finally, Errol Morris' Believing is Seeing wouldn't have caught my attention were it not for the author being a favourite filmmaker; being ignorant of the issues surrounding photography and the question of whether a photo is "staged," I was fascinated by Morris' essays on the subject.

2012: FILMS

Let's see, according to my records I watched... approximately 900 movies in 2012. Huh. Even though at times I would go an entire week without watching a film, on some weekends I would watch movies non-stop, thanks to buying up old VHS tapes for a pittance and constantly renting pictures through my library. I have a list of titles I'm always trying to locate and watch, but also sought out various directors and stars I'd previously had only a minor interest in.

I'm usually a tough sell when it comes to comedies, so it's no small thing for me to recommend the following: Ruggles of Red Gap (1937), O. Henry's Full House (1952), Footlight Parade (1933; I'm not a musical fan either), Bachelor Mother (1939), That Thing You Do! (1996), Stand-In (1937), the Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), the Muppets (2011), Destry Rides Again (1939), Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), Palm Beach Story (1942), the Great McGinty (1940), Ball of Fire (1941), the Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2008), Easy Living (1937) & Dark Star (1974).

Some great documentaries were: Shake Hands With the Devil: the Personal Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2004), It's All True (1993), When We Were Kings (1996), Being Elmo (2011), Tabloid (2011), the Adventures of Errol Flynn (2005), Let There be Light (1946) & Grass: a Nation's Struggle for Life (1925).

Some great thrillers & action movies include: the Face Behind the Mask, the House by the River (1950), the Big Heat (1953; this led to a new found appreciation for Fritz Lang), the Reckless Moment (1949), Gun Crazy (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1952), Fury (1936; another utterly amazing Fritz Lang picture), Flight of the Phoenix (1965), Misery (1990), the Ministry of Fear (1944), Onibaba (1964), Magic (1978), Alive (1993) & the Avengers (2012).

Finally, the rest: the Hill (1965), the Road (2009), Black Orpheus (1959), the Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Of Mice and Men (1939), Stage Door (1937), Grand Canyon (1991), Grand Hotel (1932), State of the Union (1948), On Borrowed Time (1939), the Artist (2011), Eight Men Out (1988), Ben-Hur (1925), the Thin Man (1931), the Story of G.I. Joe (1945), Three Comrades (1938), the Sunset Limited (2011), der Verlorene (1951), Patterns (1956) & the Last Emperor (1987).

Strangely, from January-August I only visited the cinema three times, including for John Carter and Brave, which were both good (how strange to me to find myself a Disney fan!). However, in the last four months of the year I visited the cinema eight times! Of the latter eight visits, the Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey was good, albeit padded (can't wait for the shortened edition DVD).

2012: COMIC BOOKS

Obviously I hit a rough patch with comic books in 2012 as it was the year I quit working for Marvel Comics and gave up buying comics from Marvel or DC. It was also the year which saw some of my favourite books - Snarked, Rasl & glamourpuss - conclude their runs, while Usagi Yojimbo went on hiatus.

Still, there was much to enjoy; IDW is fast becoming my favourite publisher, not only as I continue to delve through their Complete Terry & the Pirates collections but with Larry Hama's G.I. Joe: a Real American Hero!, Roger Langridge's Popeye, the reprinted Classic Popeye (me? buying two Popeye comics per month?) and James Stokoe's Godzilla: the Half-Century War I happily gave them a lot of business in 2012 and it appears 2013 will be another great year at IDW!

Elsewhere, I added Joe Sacco's Journalism and the Fixer and Other Stories to my library, plus another of Fantagraphics' Carl Barks Library editions. There was also at least one more Tales Designed to Thrizzle, wasn't there? The graphic novel a Tale of Sand was a visual treat and Supernatural Law squeezed out another collection, one I happily supported via Kickstarter (more on this book in coming weeks). Finally, delving into the university's collection brought up Joe Kubert's Fax From Sarajevo, a fine non-fiction graphic novel and great way for me to remember the creator, who passed away during the year.

2012: TELEVISION

Discovering Errol Morris' First Person series was the single best television-based experience of mine in 2012; I implore you, seek this program out! If episodes like "Eye to Eye" or "Leaving the Earth" don't keep you fascinated and riveted, I don't know what would.

I didn't keep up with many current programs; although I continued with the Amazing Race's two 2012 seasons, neither really thrilled me (aside from a few very memorable teams and moments). I actually enjoyed last year's Amazing Race: Australia far more than the US version! I also kept track of the Daily Show for most of the year, primarily for Jon Stewart's monologues (I don't care much for the correspondents and find maybe half of the interviews worth watching). Still, it being an election year in the USA made the show worth keeping up with; I also watched more Colbert Report than usual because of the election, although I can only take so much of Colbert's style (the show half-mocks and half-endorses the cult of personality; I'd rather just dispense with all the Colbert-baits-his-audience moments).

2012: CDs

I didn't buy much music in 2012 because I had so many albums gifted to me in 2011 which had yet to be experienced. I did purchase a Louis Armstrong collection (because I felt I needed some Louis Armstrong), but the real purchase was the Newsboys' God's Not Dead, which was up to the band's usual standards; having stepped away from Christian music for most of a decade, it's great to be listening to at least one band again, especially one which melds basically every group I enjoyed in the 1990s into one unit.

2012: VIDEO GAMES

The only new video game of significance came late in the year: Halo 4. I was dubious about continuing the Halo story after it had been well wrapped-up in Halo 3, but the new game's campaign was decent enough. The only real frustration with Halo 4 is how terrible the matchmaking system is, with many games lagging, stalling or outright dropping.

Now that I have all my good will out of the way, it's time to indulge in what I found disappointing in 2012.

In books, I tried out Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm even though I'd heard many times how Dracula was supposedly his only good book. Having enjoyed Jewel of the Seven Stars, I was prepared to prove the critics wrong, but... this proved to be an uninteresting slog.

In the midst of my Sax Rohmer reading I bought Bianca in Black by his wife, Elizabeth, primarily as a curio. It's a pretty unremarkable mystery story about a bride who might be a black widow murderer. Or is she...? I'll tell you up front: it's reverse-Rebecca.

After years of searching, I finally picked up the film Track of the Cat (1954), having enjoyed the radio adaptation on Suspense and assumed it would make a pretty great film; it was immensely uninteresting and ultimately botched the best moment of the story (the moment where the protagonist thinks a panther is stalking him). The most interesting thing about the movie is it's use of colour, being a colour film which uses primarily black/white coloured objects & clothing. That's it.

Finally, two films about famous authors: Kafka (1991) and Hammett (1981). Both films have the "brilliant" idea of casting a famous author as the hero in a story ripped-off from the author's own material, rather than examine the authors' real lives (which should have been fascinating enough!). I fear someday I'll discover someone made a film called "Doyle" wherein Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must investigate a phantom hound...

A few idle thoughts about film scores

I don't spend much time considering music; for many years after I first left home, I almost never put on music. In those days, my old-time radio hobby was running with a full head of steam and what time I didn't spend at home writing, reading or watching TV was given to old-time radio.

Eventually, I developed a fondness for classical music when I discovered it was the most pleasing music to hear while working. It was only natural for me to be inclined to the classics, coming from a home where each of my siblings and my mother played either the piano or clarinet. By the time I was listening to classical music all day, I'd learned how my close friend Craig was something of a classics man... but primarily a fan of film scores.

I didn't give film soundtracks much thought until Craig started initiating such conversations; I think John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann were previously the only film composers I could identify (aside: as a child, my siblings and I would joke about how Williams' scores sounded alike, before we even knew he was the composer of all the films in question; as an adult, I was seriously amused to discover other people held the same opinion of Williams). Craig loves film scores, to the extent of which he collects soundtracks based on his interest in the composer, not the film itself. I have to admit, despite his best efforts, I can't make that leap - I need to have both seen and enjoyed a film before I'm willing to experience the soundtrack. When Craig moved to Hong Kong he bequeathed his immense soundtrack collection to me, a gesture I quite appreciated.

Craig occasionally writes about soundtracks (often at great length) at his blog; I don't have nearly as much to say about them, but I felt I would share my list of my nine favourite tracks and why I enjoy them; we'll hit this in reverse chronological order:

Avatar: "Gathering All The Na'vi Clans For Battle" by James Horner

Since I became more aware of soundtracks and their composers, James Horner has become one of my favourites - and not just because we share a birthday! This track comes at the point of the film where... well, all the Na'vi clans are gathering for battle. Although there are many tracks on the album which I enjoy hearing over and over - and certainly tracks using less traditional instruments than this - this track has a section I love to hear where the music grows, swells, drops, then rises back up even higher, until it strikes it's highest notes at the climax.

The Dark Knight: "Like a Dog Chasing Cars" by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

It was Craig who made me familiar with Zimmer and Howard, yet this film score doesn't get top marks from him; regardless, it's one of my most frequently-played albums and "Like a Dog Chasing Cars" is a great track to turn on when I want to get some serious work done; it's energetic and frantic, racing, going higher, then lower, then higher which is clearly a musical rhythm I like. I don't even recall where this track appears in the film (during the car chase?), I simply enjoy the sense of desperation the music evokes, that time is running out.

Dark City: "You Have the Power" by Trevor Jones

This music plays over the climax of the film and is about as close to a theme as the movie possesses. It's big and loud and it seems to me it captures the back-and-forth of the film's climactic duel.

Glory: "Charging Fort Wagner" by James Horner

Oh, Glory; your failure to win the Oscar for best score just underlies the unreliability of the Academy's judges. This was the film which really made me take notice of Horner; it's emotionally manipulative, triumphant and tragic, thus fitting the movie perfectly.

Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan: "Main Title" by James Horner

I don't think I could omit a Star Trek track from my list; Trek has managed to have a pretty decent line-up of musical scores, but just I find this to be the most rewarding of the films, I find the track is also the most involving of the various openings.

Psycho: "Prelude" by Bernard Herrmann

Herrmann's score for Psycho is, of course, integral to the film and it's impact on popular culture, but even removed from the cinema, the heavy string theme which opens the picture - and then keeps reprising regardless of how suspenseful you may judge the events on screen - holds up quite well.

Vertigo: "Prelude and Rooftop" by Bernard Herrmann

Thanks to its appearance in various trailers on my Alfred Hitchcock VHS tapes, this is the music I associate with Hitchcock himself (after "Funeral March of a Marionette," of course). The track conveys an unsettling feeling, one which remains with you through the film as you attempt to understand what's really going on.

The Third Man: "the Third Man Theme" by Anton Karas

I think I could almost hum the entire score* of this film (my personal favourite picture). Somehow, this simple little zither score was the perfect touch to the film. It feels weirdly out-of-place with some of the surrounding scenes, serving to remind you this isn't a typical mystery/espionage story. Perhaps because the zither holds such a jolly, light-hearted feel, the comedic moments feel natural... and the shifts to violence and suffering feel all the more stark.

The Adventures of Robin Hood: "Prologue" by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

A few years ago I felt I really needed to own the Adventures of Robin Hood score, but unable to find a copy I settled on the Sea Hawk, another Korngold score. I didn't even realize Korngold had scored three of Errol Flynn & Michael Curtiz's pictures (the third being Captain Blood), nor who Korngold was (a world famous composer outside of films, as it happens). Korngold's score to Robin Hood is a large part of my childhood memory of this picture, noisy, a little gaudy, romantic and adventurous, but I could have easily nominated the other two aforementioned pictures in this slot; Robin Hood was the first Korngold I heard and the film is certainly my favourite of the Curtiz/Flynn/Korngold trilogy.

Right then, I'm off to listen to some Korngold. I hope you found something useful in this!

*= Yes, both tracks!

Considering 2010: Music

Music is not tremendously important to me. In fact, this is the first post on the subject for Section 244. There was a time (high school) when I spent a lot of time fixating on albums, music videos, concerts, etc. By college I had lost interest in music altogether and never really recaptured an ear for contemporary sounds.

Still, in 2010 I did attend a concert with my brother: we went to see the Newsboys with their new front man Michael Tait (formerly 1/3rd of DC Talk). I was impressed at Tait's ability to perform familiar Newsboys tunes from the 90s and it was clear to see the band benefited from adding him to their lineup since he brought the entire DC Talk back catalogue to their repetoire; it's a shame the band had to lose their long-time front man Peter Furler, but Tait might be the only man alive who can fit his shoes. I've bought the new album for my brother, but haven't snagged one for myself yet.

At work I listen to classical music all day long but I haven't sought out recordings of classical music. I don't know enough about particular performers to know which I would want to own and classical tends to be more expensive than contemporary.

However, thanks to some sage advice from my friend Craig, I've made film soundtracks my new diversion. In 2010, I probably played the soundtrack of Avatar more than any other disc; for his part, Craig provided me with How to Train Your Dragon. I've also found a nice collection of Bernard Herrmann scores and the various Halo soundtracks have a great sound.

Finally, I've been taking an interest in Oscar Levant's music, due to suddenly realizing...there are recordings of Oscar Levant's music! As an old-time radio buff, I had heard Levant on various broadcasts of Information Please, where he impressed me with his intellect, humour and piano playing. It took me some time to realize Levant recorded albums of his performances, albums which can obtained via cd.

So, looking ahead to 2011 I see myself finally getting the Newsboys' Born Again, tracking down more soundtracks to films I enjoy (hopefully with some more Herrmann) and scouring for a bit of Levant.