Day: February 19, 2006

Ancient Recording?

“Belgian researchers have been able to use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery.”

?!?!?

Maybe… This is about the time of year for another French prank. My French is really rusty, and I would have had a little difficulty following well even when I was relatively fresh in the language (reading other languages has always been a bit easier for me), but I have read an English translation of the interview here. As followed up at that link… Maybe not…

The video comes from the web site of Zalea TV (“Le Vase” http://www.zalea.org/article.php3?id_article=496). This is a TV dediated to humor and spoofing, and it has been around since at leat December 2005.

Oh. Well. It would have been nice. Maybe is is real. But it’s not looking espeically promising.

h.t. The English Guy, where I first saw this.

OK, I admit it. In spite of the ton of silly anachronisms, I rather enjoyed The Mask of Zorro. I mean, Anthony Hopkins, right? And the “new” Zorro role suited Antonio Banderas to a T. Catherine Zeta-Jones was eye candy enough (even with her atrocious accent), and the swordplay/fight scenes were pretty good.

Contton candy, but not so bad the tons of anachronisms couldn’t be ignored in some plea by my suspension of disbelief assuming some sort of alternate reality or something.

But not even Banderas’ suitability to tghe role, Zeta-Jones’ still screenworthy eye candy or even young Adrian Alonso’s delightful portrayal of Joachim, son of Alejandro and Elena, and some really great choreography (fight scenes)—heck, not even a gorgeous, well-trained horse—could overcome the weight of anachronisms.

*sigh*

This was a movie written by, produced by, directed by and for subliterates.

The movie is (amorphously–there are continuity problems between this movie and The Mask of Zorro, many of them) placed in 1850, and the setting of California gaining statehood is established.

But… the first action sequence in the film involves a Henry lever action rifle—prominently placed in the villain’s hands. Let’s see… Henry got the patent for that rifle design in… 1860, as I recall.

Not an auspicious beginning.

An important plot device in the movie is nitroglycerin, presented as a brand new, “secret weapon” developed by a secret cabal to be used in the destruction of the United States. Works fine, except that nitro was invented in Italy in 1846 and was widely known by 1850.

Then there’s the plot to use the railroad to distribute nitro throughout the U.S. for use in destroying… what? Silly plot device compounded by the railroad scheme. Where was this non-existant railroad distribution system for the California Gold Rush, 1849~1854? Uhm, nowhere. That’s because the distribution system wasn’t even in existance in its most basic form until 1869 with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Shall I go on to speak of a modern California-style “quickie divorce”—by a wife shedding a husband, no less!—in 1850 California? Or the simple fact that the Pinkerton Detective Agency was barely getting started and we’re to expect it was involved in skullduggery (and profound ineptitude) in the California statehood question? Silly. Should I speak of Southerners in mock Confederate uniforms? Or Abraham Lincoln in full “presidential garb” as background fluff?

Aw, gee… Is there nothing to save this flick?

Well, surely not a plot that makes any sense (FULL of holes) or witty dialogue or credible character development (apart from young Joachim, to the degree the plot allows).

All it has going for it are the aforementioned action sequences, competent (though pedestrian) performances by the leads, a really fun child actor (who, frankly, filled Anthony Hopkins shoes as the real actor in the show) and a horse.

Not enough to outweigh an assinine plot and a p-potful of anachronisms (I only scratched the surface there).

*sigh*

And I had so hoped for something inoffensive with anough romance for Wonder Woman, enough swordplay for me and enough credibility to at least allow for suspension of disbelief.

Nope. Not in The Legend of Zorro

Oh. Well. Written by and directed by subliterates for subliterates, I suppose.

Just the way it goes…

Submitted to The Critics’ Corners at Is It Just Me?, NIF.

An email exchange with The English Guy riffing off the “Seven Songs” meme pool game led me to recall one of my very favorite voices—not that it took much. heh. Anyway, Rich, The English Guy, reminded me of his preference for Mozart over Beethoven, which popped this into my mind’s ear:

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]

Now, I’m not a huge opera fan, although arias and chorus pieces and instrumental preludes, interludes & etc., all find their way to my listening from various operas pretty regularly. But of all the operas I’ve been exposed to or associated with in the past, Die Zauberflöte is one I could sit through very gladly. Mozart at his light-hearted best, IMO. And listening to a recording directed by Karl Böhm with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing the Papageno role? Ah, I could listen to that for hours. Just the single finest lyric baritone voice ever recorded, IMO. Even in the very brief excerpt linked (no, not posted here) below, the wonderful quality of his voice shines. *sigh*

And when Fischer-Dieskau sings lieder, ya get a chance to hear what Schubert or Schumann must really have been hearing in their own minds’ ears.

Just awesomely good stuff.

And reading Romeocat’s songlist (see below), reminded me of this, which, although it’s at too slow a tempo for regular use and I dislike some of the vowell choices, is nevertheless a beautiful and moving performance of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (NETTLETON)… and reminds me yet again what a culturally subliterate society we’ve become.

What? Yep. The second verse of the song starts, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer/Hither by Thy help I’m come… ” which many churches are removing or modifying because… well, almost nobody has the foggiest idea what that means.

*sigh* For the darker side, Continue reading “I just love this stuff”