An unexpected journey into the making of a major feature film

I know a lot goes into the making of a major film; and even more goes into a film with state-of-the-art effects; and yet more into a film shot in 3D; and still more when it’s not one but three films being shot simultaneously. But not until I watched the behind-the-scenes filming and production video …

The musical handyman

This evening, the guest performers playing with the Butler Symphony Orchestra for their concert titled “Jazz” were Joe Negri and his trio. Joe’s a well-known and uber-talented jazz guitarist, and an exceedingly nice person. He soloed on a number that is a signature tune for him, an adaptation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. Here’s a clip …

Film flashback: Born Yesterday

William Holden & Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday The highlight of my weekend was seeing a classic film I hadn’t seen before: Born Yesterday, starring Judy Holliday and William Holden. I’m not sure how I missed this one in the past. Judy Holliday is outstanding in this, coarse (check out her shouting “What?” in the …

Bringing Mr. Sandman back to life

The first horror movie I saw in a theater was Halloween 2. I had seen nothing as terrifying before, and it scarred my psyche. One major result was that I could no longer hear the song “Mr. Sandman,” which was featured in the movie. Previously I thought of it — if I thought of it …

Gone, man, solid gone

My favorite Disney movie has to be The Jungle Book. The story is great, the animation is lovely, the characters are memorable (Shere Khan, voiced by George Sanders, is among my favorite movie villains), and the music is jazzy perfection. With so many great songs it might seem hard to choose a favorite one, but …

A typical case of American blind justice

There are many Christmas songs but few Thanksgiving songs. In fact the only one I know is "Alice’s Restaurant Massacre" by Arlo Guthrie. It’s 18 minutes long, so I think that makes it count for five songs. (A big Thanksgiving thank you to Uncle Crappy for reminding me about the song, which seems to slip …

Did you try…? Shouldn’t it be a bit more…? Or this. This!

I have a new post on the Pittsburgh Symphony Blogs: “A night in Vienna.” I’m sorry to say that, until this weekend, my major experience of Mozart had been via the Movie and stage play Amadeus, and the soundtrack to the movie. In reading about Mozart’s shockingly productive yet short life — he died at …