Uh, Soundtrack Covers

So, I’m kind of into soundtracks. And I’m kinda, sorta, maybe, a little… a little anal about my music library and album artwork and those sorts of things. So when I came across a collection of iTunes Library-grade resolution soundtrack covers that I hadn’t even seen before, I think I peed my pants a little. A little.

I think most of the ‘non-normal’ ones are fan-made; but contrary to most fan-made things on the internet, these are actually in pretty good taste. And if nothing else, they’re great as alternates for the real albums, when you have unofficial extended cuts, promos or other cover-less albums in need of some nice coverflow-friendly graphics.

Check out this one for Fight Club which matches the limited edition DVD, or this Pan’s Labyrinth by Mike Mignola, a whole slew of very cool Zodiac ones and some Life Aquatic and Lord of the Rings ones under L. A neat Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within one, which matches the artbook (good ol’ Goldenthal doesn’t let us down). And this There Will Be Blood cover certainly kicks the crap out of the one that came with my purchase.

But reigning high above all the others, is Kill Bill (I always loved the Japanese ‘Kill is Love’ series of posters) and Star Wars.

"No, no, no, no, no, Angelo"

I met Angelo Badalamenti on Blue Velvet and since then he has composed music for all my films. He’s like my brother.

The way we work is: I like to sit next to him on the piano bench. I talk and Angelo plays. He plays my words. But sometimes he doesn’t understand my words, so he plays very badly. then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo.” And I change my words a little bit and he plays differently. And then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo,” and I change my words. And somehow through this process he will catch something, and I’ll say, “That’s it!” And then he starts going with his magic, down that correct path. It’s so much fun. If Angelo liveed next door to me, I’d like to do this every day. But he lives in New Jersey, and I live in Los Angeles.

- David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, Hardcover ed., Tarcher/Penguin, 2006, p. 65

'Their's not to reason why'

I normally keep quotations to my tumblr account, but this one I came upon while idly flipping through Troublesome Words, and it felt like deserving of more prominence:

‘Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die’ is often heard, but is wrong. The lines from Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ are ‘Their’s not to reason why,/ Their’s but to do and die’. Note that the closing words ‘do and die’ give the lines an entirely different sense. Finally, it should be noted that Tennyson’s punctuation of ‘theirs’ is irregular.

- Bill Bryson, Troublesome Words, 3rd ed. paperback, Penguin Books, 2001, p. 149.

Del Toro Hates Heroic Fantasy... Just Saying

I don’t want to rub it in, nor do I want to be rabid about it, so I’ll shut up from now until we see a trailer. But this at least deserves mentioning:

First of all, hasn’t anybody noticed that del Toro has repeatedly said he doesn’t like Tolkien, and that he never finished reading “The Lord of the Rings”? Here’s what he told me in Cannes in 2006, when I asked him about the influence of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis on his own work: “I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don’t like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I’ve never been into that at all. I don’t like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff.” # (via)

Oh, and Hellboy sucked. Just saying…

Oh No. Del Toro for The Hobbit

In a major step forward on “The Hobbit,” Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct the New Line-MGM tentpole and its sequel. #

Some might call it a ‘step forward’, others, me, might call it a catastrophic choice of biblical proportions.

I know; I’m a testy little fanboy, alright? But I’m the overbearing kind; the kind that doesn’t mind the elves coming to Helm’s Deep, or even such ‘minor’ book-to-film discrepancies as Frodo’s age.

But Guillermo Del Toro directing The Hobbit? I can’t think of anyone I’d want less to do that. As I’ve said before.

Now Jackson is going to be there and he’s working with Weta, but considering how absolute shit Hellboy II looks, I have very little confidence in him.

...

Oh no, I just realized… Ron Perlman is going to be in it. He’s probably going to play Bilbo.

Dammit. I’ve lost.

This had better not be Return of the Jedi/Prequel trilogy all over again…

I hope he proves me wrong.

Update:

And if I could just editorialize for a quick second: Guillermo del Toro has never made a bad movie. And don’t say Mimic because that’s a really underrated horror flick. #

O RLY

16.4% Xbox 360 Failure Rate. Ouch.

Since my 360 recently died, I’ve been wondering what the actual failure rate of the 360 is. Peter Moore claims that it’s a mere 3%, which seems unbelievable, considering how many people I know, who’ve lost their 360 to failures.

Well, it turns out the truth is a bit more severe:

Working with a sufficient sample size of over 1,000 claims, SquareTrade, a warranty seller, has projected the Xbox 360 failure rate at 16.4% — and likely climbing. Comparatively, the company reports failure rates hovering around 3% for PlayStation 3 and Wii, based on less accurate sample sizes numbering in the hundreds. #

16.4% and rising! Phew.

Warren Ellis and Superheros

I’m not pointing any fingers, but note this interview with Warren Ellis in Writers on Comics Scriptwriting:

And yet you continue to write superhero comics, why is that?

At the moment, yeah, I’m still writing superhero comics. But Planetary I’m only expecting to run about three years, and that will be the last superhero project I do. Once Planetary is complete, that’s it, I’m out of the genre. Planetary is designed to say everything I have left to say about superheroes.

Page 63, Writers on Comics Scriptwriting by Mark Salisbury

Now note who is scheduled to take over Astonishing X-Men after Joss Whedon.

Not that I’m complaining. I’m just waiting for the damn trade to be released and rereading my Iron Man: Extremis in the interim.

Remixing The Nines

John August, who recently wrote and directed The Nines, a film I’m rather looking forward to seeing, recently published his thoughts on it being torrented and in the follow-up reveals that:

One of the things I hope to do with The Nines — sometime after the writers’ strike, when I can call Sony again — is work with them to release a low-res version of all the source material for The Nines, so budding filmmakers can try their hand at cutting (and re-cutting) a real feature. #

Exciting stuff.