My Muse ~ Movies, Music & Books
Journeys and words inspired by the arts...
I think what makes The Tardis so compelling as a storytelling device is its strength as a metaphor for our own human condition. Like us, it’s larger — much larger — on the inside than it appears on the outside. Infinite. Surprising. Confusing. Contradictory. And extraordinarily, strangely beautiful. And also […]
It’s a rare enough thing that television offers art of remarkable quality, but (imho) Battlestar Galactica — the “reimagined” series which aired beginning in 2003 — did just that. Not only in its scripts, cinematography, visual effects and acting, but also the soundracks scored by Bear McCreary and (for the […]
And some stuff you just love from the very first chord … timbre, qualities of its attack, sustain and decay, the authority with which it’s played, the key it’s played in, the instrumentation and even their arrangement, the way all these elements come together in that brief moment when sound […]
A fellow film colleague posted a link to a set of celebrity images. Some of those images had been photoshopped by Danny Evans to give his “artist’s impression” of what these celebrities might have looked like without makeup, hair stylists, fashion stylists, diets, personal trainers, botox and a battery of […]
I have to admit, I’m still a bit miffed that Al Pacino won the Oscar for Scent of a Woman, essentially robbing Robert Downy Jr, who had so exquisitely channelled Charlie Chaplin that same year. But, hey, Pacino had his moments.
This is, I am So beautiful and fierce This is, violence And holy words And I swear fealty To smile beyond dignity To be kissed and salted To be kissed and salted Oh to kiss and be salted By love extreme This is Veda Hille. A pianist friend tells […]
Matthews is a hell of a showman. I have a number of live versions of this song done fully-kitted out with a full complement of musicians. He and his band let it all hang out on stage and, as they say, the crowd goes wild. Which makes the essential power […]
A high-school chum, storm-bound in DC due to the recent blizzard, posted this image on my Facebook timeline. Thinking of you! — at Capitol Lounge. Of course, it tickled me like foam on my mustache. But it also jogged loose a memory. I can’t believe it was over a decade […]
I’ve done something I haven’t done in a while. At a beautiful cabin in the remote British Columbia Chilcotins, I’ve picked up a Maclean’s news magazine. January 28, 2013 edition. A few pages and article skims in I discover a photograph of the disgraced former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian […]
I’m not sure a more fascinating and inventive song — both lyrically and musically — has ever been created about the simple act of commuting home on the train. What I really love most about Jethro Tull’s Journeyman (Heavy Horses, 1978), is the way the bass drives both the melody […]
