The Pre-Read

Painting With Music (Part 4)

Painting With Music (Part 3)

Painting With Music (Part 2)

Painting With Music (Part 1)

I remember watching the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, obviously a significant event. I can remember watching the news and reading the papers (I've always been a news junkie) and being absolutely amazed that at one point, before the Berlin Wall came down, East Germans were freely walking across fields to the free West side. It was truly something to behold. And a day or two later, people of all shapes and sizes brought sledge hammers, claw hammers, and anything they could find, and began dismantling the symbol of Soviet domination and oppression.

To commemorate this joyful event, on either Christmas night, or New Years Eve, I forget which, Leonard Bernstein went to Berlin and conducted a group of musicians culled from both East and West Germany, as well as other countries.

Together, they performed Beethoven's very popular 9th Symphony, or the more commonly referred to Ode To Joy.  What made this version different, however, was history itself. But also the changing of a word in the poem by Friedrich von Shiller which serves as lyrics to some of the movements.

Freiude is Joy, and Freiheit is Freedom, so Ode To Joy that evening became Ode To Freedom. While I won't even pretend to understand German, it is said that the words were similar enough that they could be changed and the meaning would not only be more appropriate for the historic event, but the word itself would not affect the timing of the music.

The music is ... well, what can you add to Beethoven that hasn't already been said? And Bernstein? Well, what can one add to his contribution to music? Though it is great to see that he can barely be contained at his podium, look at his feet, he nearly climbs over the raised barrier to get to the musicians, and it's no surprise either, that he conducts with no sheet music, just pure love.

In this weekend's listing of musical genius', I have to add both Beethoven and Bernstein and no other words are necessary.

FRIEDRICH VON SHILLER

Ode To Joy (Freedom)

Freedom, thou beauteous godly lightning,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!
Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide,
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.

Chorus.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving Father.}

Who the noble prize achieveth,
Good friend of a friend to be;
Who a lovely wife attaineth,
Join us in his jubilee!
Yes—he too who but {one} being
On this earth can call {his} own!
He who ne’er was able, weeping
Stealeth from this league alone!

Chorus.
He who in the great ring dwelleth,
Homage pays to sympathy!
To the stars above leads she,
Where on high the {Unknown} reigneth.}

Freedom is drunk by every being
From kind nature’s flowing breasts,
Every evil, every good thing
For her rosy footprint quests.
Gave she {us} both {vines} and kisses,
In the face of death a friend,
To the worm were given blisses
And the Cherubs God attend.

Chorus.
Fall before him, all ye millions?
{Know’st} thou the Creator, world?
Seek above the stars unfurl’d,
Yonder dwells He in the heavens.}

Freedom commands the hardy mainspring
Of the universe eterne.
Freedom, oh freedom the wheel is driving
Which the worlds’ great clock doth turn.
Flowers from the buds she coaxes,
Suns from out the hyaline,
Spheres she rotates through expanses,
Which the seer can’t divine.

Chorus.
As the suns are flying, happy
Through the heaven’s glorious plane,
Travel, brothers, down your lane,
Free as in hero’s vict’ry.}

From the truth’s own fiery mirror
On the searcher {doth} she smile.
Up the steep incline of honor
Guideth {she} the suff’rer’s mile.
High upon faith’s sunlit mountains
One can see {her} banner flies,
Through the breach of open’d coffins
{She} in angel’s choir doth rise.

Chorus.
Suffer on courageous millions!
Suffer for a better world!
O’er the tent of stars unfurl’d
God rewards you from the heavens.}

Gods can never be requited,
Beauteous ’tis, their like to be.
Grief and want shall be reported,
So to cheer with gaiety.
Hate and vengeance be forgotten,
Pardon’d be our mortal foe,
Not a teardrop shall him dampen,
No repentance bring him low.

Chorus.
Let our book of debts be cancell’d!
Reconcile the total world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
God doth judge, as we have settl’d.}

Freedom doth bubble from this rummer,
From the golden blood of grape
Cannibals imbibe good temper,
Weak of heart their courage take—
Brothers, fly up from thy places,
When the brimming cup doth pass,
Let the foam shoot up in spaces:
To the goodly Soul this glass!

Chorus.
Whom the crown of stars doth honor,
Whom the hymns of Seraphs bless,
{To the goodly Soul this glass}
O’er the tent of stars up yonder!}

Courage firm in grievous trial,
Help, where innocence doth scream,
Oaths which sworn to are eternal,
Truth to friend and foe the same,
Manly pride ’fore kingly power—
Brothers, cost it life and blood,—
Honor to whom merits honor,
Ruin to the lying brood!

Chorus.
Closer draw the holy circle,
Swear it by this golden wine,
Faithful to the vow divine,
Swear it by the Judge celestial!}

Rescue from the tyrant’s fetters,
Mercy to the villain e’en,
Hope within the dying hours,
Pardon at the guillotine!
E’en the dead shall live in heaven!
Brothers, drink and all agree,
Every sin shall be forgiven,
Hell forever cease to be.

Chorus.
A serene departing hour!
Pleasant sleep beneath the pall!
Brothers—gentle words for all
Doth the Judge of mortals utter!}

Captain Quark 2

Okay, I forgot about the laugh track.

Captain Quark

Shortly after Star Wars came out in the late 70's, every major studio wanted a piece of the space action. Whether it was the foreign produced The Adventures of Stella Star in movie theaters, or Universal's Battlestar Galactica for television, everyone wanted to cash in on the huge success of science fiction.

Then there was Quark. Not so much trying to duplicate the success of Star Wars, Quark tried instead to lampoon it.  From the genius that is Buck Henry came this NBC series that followed the captain and crew of a garbage scowl as it patrolled the galaxy for ... well, garbage.

Starring Richard Benjamin as Captain Quark, the rest of the crew was filled out by Tim Thomerson as Gene/Jean, a character who had equal parts of Male and Female chromosomes, Patricia and Cyb Barnstable as Betty 1 and Betty 2 (one was a clone, but each would claim the "other" was the clone), Conrad Janis as Otto Palindrome and Joan Van Ark.

As you might imagine coming from Buck Henry, the show was funny, quick and lasted only 8 episodes.

I wish I could say those episodes are available on DVD, but they're not. I did find, however, a very cool website that has some cool info on the show as well as some links to watch either entire episodes, or at the very least selected scenes.

For those unfamiliar with Buck Henry, he was the genius behind Get Smart, Catch 22 (screenplay), The Owl And The Pussycat, wrote for cinema The Day Of The Dolphin and probably my favorite What's Up Doc.

Henry was also a frequent guest on the original Saturday Night Live in some performances which I can only imagine aren't even airable today.

Anyway, if you have a chance, check out this link for some great space fun.

"Queen Marlene, Star Of The Screen"

The early 80's saw an explosion of film in what would become known as The Australian New Wave.

During this time a staggering number of quality films emerged from Down Under directed by the likes of Bruce Beresford, Fred Schepsi, Peter Weir, George Miller, Phillip Noyce, and Gillian Armstrong to name a few. These directors made movies on budgets there would be considered minuscule by American standards and on schedules that were considered impossible at best. In Australia, at the time, rarely did a film cost more than $100,000 or take longer than 14 days to a month to shoot.

And while each of those directors would attain great fame the world over, it was Armstrong who created a bit of a stir with the follow-up to her worldwide success of My Brilliant Career. While certainly a great movie, Career, for its time, was an almost expected Australian period piece. Her next film was decidedly not.

Star Struck is a New Wave musical with outlandish costumes, enjoyably high energy music and fun choreography. As a follow up to her previous hit, Armstrong received great reviews around the world but, sadly, the film didn't do as well at home.

Easily described as the typical story of a young girl dreaming of stardom by winning the local talent contest and using the prize money to save the family home would entirely miss the point of this movie.

While no casting director is listed in the credits, the cast is truly wonderful. Starring newcomer (to both acting and singing) Jo Kennedy, newcommer Ross O'Donovan, the late Margo Lee, and Australia's treasure Pat Evison, together they bring this routine story to a level unimaginable.

This really is one of my all time favorite movies that, sadly, hasn't really reached American audiences. Although now it is appearing on the Flix movie channel this month, and a DVD is now available.

If you enjoy "feel good" movies, with great music and a talented cast, then this is one not to miss. And costumes by Lucian Arrighi and Terry Ryan are both beautiful and quirky and production design by Brian Thomson (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) is both colorful and inspired.

At a time when Australia produced terrific somber pieces like Gallipoli, Picnic At Hanging Rock and others, Gillian Armstrong let the world know that they could have a bit of fun too.

Try to catch this movie if you can, and if you don't have Flix, see if you can rent the DVD. Trust me, you won't be sorry!

Lt. Saavik As

Fat Actress.

I finally caught this Showtime program and I was really surprised. Surprised at how fun it was.

Kirstie Alley pokes fun at her girth in a series that lasted only one season, though I think that season consisted of only about 7 episodes.

But those episodes are full of self depreciating humor from not only Kirstie but some of her guest stars as well.  How can a series that boasts guests like; John Travolta, Carmen Electra, Melissa Gilbert, Mayim Bialik, and Merv Griffin to name a few, be anything but fun?

I'm not exactly sure why the series didn't get picked up. Even if Kirstie lost weight (which she did) she could have still carried the series with padding, or just focused on the neuroses that every actor in Hollywood seems to have, and our Fat Actress star was no different.

I am beginning to think that while Showtime does a fine job of airing and sometimes producing shows worthy of merit, it may be that people aren't tuning in, preferring HBO instead or the other however many hundreds of channels there may be.

Whatever the case, Fat Actress is worthy of watching, and while the series is now of DVD, the advertising features it as the first season. I think there was only one season, and as I mentioned earlier, that was only 7 episodes.  But they're 7 very fun episodes.

Great Shows You Haven't Seen

Because there just doesn't seem to be enough categories over there on the right of the screen, we're adding a new one; Great Shows You Haven't Seen.

Yes, I guess it's fairly presumptuous of me to assume that the shows listed here, from time to time, are ones that you haven't seen. But, in the case of Boomtown, it's a fairly good bet seeing as how it was cancelled midway into its second year.

Premiering on NBC in 2002 it spanned two seasons, though only 24 episodes were created. The first year had 18 and only 6 in its last.

The brainchild of Graham Yost, the writer best known for his work on Band Of Brothers, From The Earth To The Moon, and the Keanu Reeves feature Speed. Boomtown follows an ensemble cast of Los Angeles police, district attorneys, paramedics and news reporters as their lives intertwine in the process of dealing with crimes in the city.

The show received a great deal of attention because of its manner of storytelling. Each episode unfolds from the veiewpoints of several members of the cast. Only at the end does the entire story come into focus, and many times the outcome is different than the viewer might have expected.

This method of telling a story from the middle to the beginning, to the end, back to the beginning has been done many times and in both television and features. But never has it been done as well as on Boomtown.

While a few people found the process confusing, I never did and the process was never used as a gimmick, but done as an effective tool of storytelling. And that tool allowed for a complex and riveting hour of television. And many critics agreed. While the show never grabbed the numbers producers had hoped, it received a number of nominations for a variety of awards.

Starring a truly amazing cast including the often overlooked Donnie Wahlberg, Neil McDonough, Mykelti Williamson, Gary Basaraba, Nina Garbiras (a wonderful talent who seems to have disappeared from the screen), Lana Parrilla, and Jason Gedrick in what I think is probably some of his best work.

It's my understanding that only the first 18 episodes are available on DVD, but I'm hoping that will change and the final season will eventually drop. If you want to watch drama, acting, and storytelling at its best, please pick up a copy of Boomtown. You won't be sorry.