Update of my To-Do List
Update:
Clean the damn houseI have half-cleaned the house. Sort of.Write song cycle based on Lucy's blog. I already have one song started, but I'd like to have at least three by the end of next week.First song is completed. I have an idea for the second.Tidy up recording of bass and pianist for "So You Want to Write a Fugue?"Done. Incidentally, Glenn Gould is a goddamn snot, the sort of snot that makes me want to punch him in the face and kiss him at the same time, which is the best kind of snot, I guess. Observe this passage towards the end:
Hello, surprise atonalism in the middle of a Bach homage. Also, there's a section of the accompaniment that I'm pretty sure is a Wagner allusion.Finish reading American Shaolin and get started on the Proust.- Study for my music theory exam
- Finish tiling and grouting the kitchen floor and backsplash, and install the dishwasher
- Practice the cello - PRACTICE IS NEVER FINISHED
- Practice the bassoon - PRACTICE IS NEVER FINISHED
- Practice singing - PRACTICE IS NEVER FINISHED
- Rebuild my laptop
Rip Metropolis to my laptop and choose a nice fifteen-minute section of it to score in the next year.VIGOROUS SWEARING AND GNASHING OF TEETH GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR CUNNYKICK. Apparently, despite the fact that Metropolis was made in 1927 - that's eighty goddamn years ago, in case you weren't counting - it has not passed into the public domain. Wait, let me correct myself. It was in the public domain, but because of Sonny Bono's stupid fuck Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act, it suddenly became non-public property again. I didn't think that was possible, but holy fuck, it is. Words are insufficient to express my rage at the corporate-toadying US legal system's stranglehold on cumulative creativity. This is not the fucking point of copyright law! *smash*
And no, this does not only apply to the 2002 Kino restoration, but to all copies of the movie. Check this out from a lawsuit filed in 2001 against the Attorney-General in this matter:Copyright restoration has had a similarly devastating impact on Festival Films's business. Before ยง 514 went into effect, Festival Films offered a wide selection of foreign titles of works that were in the public domain for failure to satisfy the requirements of the relevant Copyright Act. Festival offered these movies for sale to the public specifically because they were in the public domain. But, with copyright restoration, Festival can no longer. Copyright restoration has forced Festival to remove approximately 50 to 60 foreign titles from its selection, including such favorites as ... the classic Fritz Lang film Metropolis.
So my grand plan to create a score for it and conduct it live in front of a projection of the movie as my senior project has been involuntarily canned. Instead, I'm laying my hands on a 1916 Danish silent film, Verdens Undergang (The End of the World), which has vaguely similar themes, I suppose. (I watched Cigarette Burns a few weeks ago, but that doesn't have much to do with it, I swear.)
Incidentally, Metropolis will enter the public domain again inYear One2023, unless some fucking Disney flunky douche asswipe bastard decides to extend the goddamn law again. I guess I should be thankful I didn't get this idea a few years ago, write it, then suddenly find my work unperformable in public as originally conceived without paying exorbitant fees.- Counterpoint homework
- Build a theremin (if the parts arrive) (they haven't)
- Luis and Clark's Carbon Fiber cello. Ioana saw a couple of these in Texas recently. I want one so bad. So bad.
- The Bible contains the word 'shit.' I guess that lets me off the hook.
- A public high school has suspended three 16-year-old girls who disobeyed officials by saying the word "vagina" during a reading from "The Vagina Monologues" ... The suspension has prompted allegations of censorship. But Principal Richard Leprine said Tuesday that the girls were punished not because of what they said but because they disobeyed orders not to say it. Wow. Wow. I mean, I was tut-tutting throughout the article, but that sentence made my jaw drop.
- Totally Kid Carousel - this is completely awesome. This page particularly.
- Tintin's heroics will report to big screen
posted by Mormolyke at
15:33
3 Comments:
Few random reactions...
Besides the word "shit", as I remember, there is an odd little passage in Exodus about Moses and Zipporah sitting in their tent one night when they hear Yahweh ranging around outside looking to kill Moses. So, Zipporah whips out a knife, hacks Moses foreskin off, and throws it to the all-powerful...which appeases him. Bwwuuuhaaahaaahaaaa!!!
This scene always struck me as something right out of a Wes Craven picture. It's in the Oxford editon...not sure if King James' boys decided to retain it.
And...A Tintin movie? Thats great! I was a huge fan between the 6th and the 9th grade. My school library had a bunch of Herge's collections and I read 'em all several times. And thought that being French must be the coolest thing. Then I took French...and changed my mind. Not really quick with languages.
I saw Kronos and Phillip Glass' scoring of "Dracula" last week. That was pretty cool. Sucks about the "Metropolis" thing. In a addition to the ridiculous idea of perpetual copyright protection,I also can't believe that an artifact can still be under copyright when there is no complete unaltered version of it left anywhere in the world. The Kino version fills in the blanks of missing chunks of the film with narrative summary. It seems to me that the Copyright law is really, really bad for posterity. S'what bit us in the ass at Gamut when we wanted to do "Who's on First", ain't it? Stupid.
Is "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" under copyright still? If not, you might want to give that a look. That's a great old horror silent. One of my favorites.
Don't know much about Glenn Gould but I did really like "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould". Ever see it?
Don't worry too much about your home improvement. I just got lights in my hallway and clothing room. 15 years later. I used to work like crazy on my old house and then I realized that no matter how much I did..there would still be plenty to do. So now I do about 3 or 4 house projects a year. Just so much better for my sanity. But then, I ain't you am I?
Aawright, that's enough for now.
Missin' jawwin' time with you Melvin. Can you tell? Would love to have you and Matt to our half-finished old house, or to see your half-finished old house sometime soon. Maybe this summer when school is out?
and the copyright extension act is why a valiant tree gave it's outer bark to stop sonny bono at all costs.
Well, I see reading "American Shaolin" is off your list. I hope you like it. And I'm honored that it came before Proust.
Best wishes,
Matthew Polly
author of "American Shaolin"
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