The Bride of Frankenstein

Okay, so I am a old black and white movie freak.   And it is Halloween weekend and last nite Claire and I went to a great Halloween party hosted by Kelly and Justin (daughter and son in law) that had all the trappings.   TCM is usually the only thing I can stand to watch on TV (well maybe the Buffalo Bills when they are winning) these days, and I do enjoy a lot of the music in the old classics.

So this morning I tuned in and saw that  the Bride of Frankenstien was on AMC (ugh commercials!) - now the first Frankenstien was brilliant, but as the Irish might say, this was genius.  Not going to review the movie, cause we all know it.   Today I couldn't help but  tune into the music.  Franz Waxmans score is so imaginative, always in sync with the scene, and has many really creative uses of music to coreograph some of  the action scequences.   It kept getting better and better as the movie rolled along.



My favorite scene in the whole movie is when the blind man picks up his fiddle to play a tune for Frankenstein and the monster starts doin some foot tappin - too cool.   How Mel Brooks let that get away from young Frankenstein is beyond me.   But I couldn't get Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman out of my head watching this scene.   When will some around here put these two films togehter on the same bill??

But throughout the movie I kept noticing the music - how good it was and how well it fit the scene, so I had to do a bit of research.

From Gary S Dalkin, who says it way better than I could

" A graceful minuet, pastoral music, a melancholic ‘Processional March’ (with the Ondes Martinot, here, suggesting the diabolical reason for its progress), storm music (a mix of Beethoven and Dukas), marvellous headlong excitement in ‘Village Chase’ and comical/lugubrious material – the quirky, inebriated ‘Bottle Sequence’ with organ gravitas and bugle calls - provide contrast to the monster music. And in the early cues like ‘Monster Entrance’, Waxman draws attention to the loneliness and isolation of Frankenstein’s creation in music that speaks of pathos as well as the grotesque and the horrific. Adding further characterisation, Waxman leaves us in no doubt how derisive are the female monster’s feelings for her supposed mate (‘Female Monster’). "

If you want to give it a listen here is a link to a youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzJqNUOm030

Now I gotta check this out on a big screen with surround sound!!!

Old Friends

So I got home from work today and had about 1/2 hour to kill till Claire had supper on the table.   The day had sapped my energy and I was drained.    Walked by the TV and paused - then decided to hit the music room.   You really can't get much done in a 1/2 hour practice, so I decided to pull my Mandola down from the wall and see how it sounded.  Hadn't touched her in about 6 months??  Maybe longer...   Anyway, after I tuned er up I picked out on of my favorite tunes (John Stinsons #2) and it sounded great.   Felt pretty good too.   The heavier woodier tone was so different than the  mandolin, guitar, or banjo.   Started to feel pretty good, and playing the tune in a different position made it all seem new.    The chords are voiced differently too and they sounded real good.   Funny how easy it is to get together with an old friend and things are just as good as last time!

So I played for what seemed 30 seconds and it was time for dinner.   How fast time passes when you are getting re-aquinted with your old friends.    It'll be continuing my reunion tommorw!

How much is enough

Musicans - I'm sure we all deal with this one - a significant other says to you that you play music all the time.    You think about it for  a few minutes and it seems like you hardly play at all.   After all, you only practiced for a few hours on Sunday, had a 3 hour band rehearsal, gave a 90 minute lesson monday, picked for fun for about an hour on tuesday, went to a jam session for the evening on wedensday, learned a new tune on Thursday that took about an hour and a half and spent another hour working up some musical ideas for a gig, only played for fun for about 1/2 hour on Friday, and then Saturday got up early and played for about 2 hours before you started your day.  This doesn't count the listening time - having music on all day at the office, always in the car, and listening on the weekends to some of the great music shows we are blessed to have around here. 

Now does that seem like too much?   Acutally, as I pondered the question, it seemed more like not enough.   12-15 hours a week does have it's benefits, but it's hardly enough to satisfy - right?? 

You never know

Last night I played at the friday nite Celi Craobh Dugan hosts in Utica.  Small group of good musicans, nice sounding room, and enthusitac dancers.   Made for a fun evening all around.   I almost didn't go because the last few times I picked up my banjo nothing worked.   Tunes that I knew seemed unfamiliar, the pick kept slipping out of my hand, and I was muting strings.  To my ear, my playing didn't sound good, and it was like swimming against the tide - the harder I tried the harder it got.   Getting very frustrated.   (note to self: even with these feelings playing is way better that not playing, so I went anyway)

It was different last night.   The banjo felt light in my hands, and every time I touched it I loved the way it was sounding.   Most of the playing was effortless, and when I was thinking of a varation on a tune, or a new ornament, I could play it as the thought came to me.   I have yet to figure out what goes on when that happens and why just days apart the playing can be so effortless one day and a struggle the next.    When I figure it out I'll let you know. 

Occupy Wall Street - The Unwelcome guest

OK - so we can't avoid this anywhere anymore.   Occcupy Wall Street.   It's a healthy reminder that we live in a free country!   Note - my political views are irrelevant here, as this blog is about the music.

This hooply reminds me of my first protest back at UB (University of Buffalo) during the dark days of September 71 - remeber the Attica Riots.   A lot of people marched around campus.   We had better villians back then - Rocky, Tricky Dick, and J Edgar.......    But then UB was a pretty radical place, and had been through the student uprising just a year earlier so it was easy to get swept up in the movment.  But the music - oh we had one hell of a soundtrack to it all - who can forget Country Joe ....but that's for another blog.

What has all this got to do with music?    Well it has a lot.   There is no soundtrack this time.   The movements are calling out for songs and songwriters and musicans to inspire and activate.   

So where have you gone Woody Guthrie?  No one to take your place.  Woody would be down there in the park holdin that guitar with the "this machine forces fascits to surrender" painted on it, writing and singin songs to inspire. 

Woody wrote some great stuff for a lot of good causes and does have a song that sure fits Occupy Wall Street - and has been playing in my head for a few weeks now - "The Unwelcome Guest"   He  never sang it though - he wrote it and it sat in a drawer for 40 years, till Norah Guthrie invited Billy Bragg to go through Woodys unfinished songs and have at it.  Billy grabbed Jeff Tweedy and Wilco and  they took the writings and put music to them togther put out a great CD "Mermaid Ave"  where you can find the song - or you can check it out right here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEnSO2apfG8

Hurts so good

Went to the monthly Craobh Dugan  Irish session at the Mill last nite - usually don't miss that one - for me the smaller groups where you can hear are a lot more fun.    I was going to skip the session because I've been having pain in my wrist for a few months now that started when I crashed my bike.   It seems that playing music aggrivates this and I actually thought I'd give it a rest.   But the lure of sitting around a table with good friends passing tunes around (one of lifes true pleasures) was too strong so I went down.    Funny thing - as soon as I started playing the pain seemed to go away.   We were doing mostly tunes new to me, and it was challanging to keep up and play along.   20 more tunes to learn - and good ones at that.   The wrist held up (it was my pickin hand) but by the end of the nite I noticed my playing was loose and the wrist hurt in a good way - like the feeling you get at the end of a good workout.  Hurts so good......

Visitors from Ireland

You know things are good in your life when you get to share your world and the things you enjoy most with people who share your passions.   Time goes away, and your energy level goes off the charts.   It doesn't happen often, but I bet most of my music friends know what I'm talkin about.

Well, it happend to me this last weekend when the "Echos of Erin" tour came to Rome - Clarie and I were lucky enough to have two of the musicans stay at our house Saturday - Conor Moriarity and Paul McMahon.   We emjoyed their company and both are really neat people.   When they got to our house we went down to my music room and started playing tunes and jamming and didn't stop for nearly two hours.   Not only were we playing, but we were really communiciating musically as well.   Gave me chills.   We played some Irish, but they wanted to play some other stuff too.  Paul grabbed my bass (he never played one) and in short order was showing that his rythym guitar skills were transferrable.  Conor is one of the worlds best acoridan players, and showed that he can improvise anything.   We made stuff up in different keys and had a ball.   Is anything more fun?   Well, yes - it got better!!!!

After their outstanding concert, we went to the Mill.   The session was Brilliant, Legendary, Genius - all those terms those Irishmen like to use.  Most of the Echos folks, plus the core players from Craobh Dugan went at it for almost two hours.   And I got to sit in the middle near Paul, Conor, Maura Walsh and hear em all while I plunked away on my mandolin.  Felt good to keep up on some of the tunes, and I was glad to play rythym on some of the real fast ones.

I hope they come back this way again......