“Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?” Alas, for the first time in three years, we don’t have a new extended LotR DVD in the works this Christmas. But to ease the pain of its passing, the full, three-disc, 180-minute Fellowship of the Ring score will be released November 22, which will include a DVD-version in 5.1 surround sound. Presumably, the other two films will follow in due course. In the meantime, this site has assembled mp3s of some of the missing musical moments from the trilogy. (Unfortunately, they haven’t yet included the culmination of the Rohan theme, as heard during the Ride of the Rohirrim.) I will go there, I will go there…and back again.
Tag: Music
…For that home across the road.
Just a reminder: Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, the Martin Scorsese-assembled documentary that’s been getting middling to great reviews, premieres tonight on PBS at 9pm (check local listings.)
Politics of Ancient History?
“Our generation has envied our elders’ experiences more often than we’ve questioned them. Growing up in the shadow of the ’60s, we couldn’t help viewing the political involvement of the age as nobler, the culture and the music as more vital, the shattering of social norms more exciting, than the zeitgeist of our own formative years.” Slate‘s David Greenberg invokes popular culture’s (and the academy’s) rampant Sixties-ism to suggest why post-John Wesley Harding Dylan gets so little love.
Mode of Infamy.
As also noted at DYFL, Depeche Mode announce their Fall 2005 tour dates, and they look to be playing the Garden on December 7. (I may also venture out to the Borgata on 12/3…we’ll see.) Whatsmore, the full video for “Precious” is now online, and, just as the single has a great throwback feel to it, the video includes several thematic elements — ship, gears, Dave walking around — from the Some Great Reward era, and particularly the old, outrageously dated video for “People are People.” Hopefully, the rest of the album also measures up as a return to form. (Better video links via Quiddity.)
Way down on Highway 61.
“As we pulled up in front of the Rollingstone Feed & Grain store, the first-take bootleg album version of the song blasted by chance from the car’s CD player. ‘Coincidence?’ Doc said, hinting that the unseen hand was mine, ‘or science?'” Bob fan Steve Dougherty ventures down Highway 61 in search of Dylanalia.
Blood, sweat, and dust.
In the trailer bin, Philip Seymour Hoffman channels In Cold Blood-era Truman Capote — I presume that’s how he actually sounded — in the preview for Capote, also with Catherine Keener and Chris Cooper. Elsewhere, 1880s Aussie Guy Pearce gets an offer he probably should refuse in The Proposition, written by Nick Cave and also starring Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Danny Houston, David Wenham, and Emily Watson. Finally, I should’ve posted this before, but only now found it: the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Dylan-doc No Direction Home, appearing on PBS Sept. 26th and 27th.
For whom the beep tolls.
I’ll be your mirror.
From White Witch to Gallic chanteuse, Tilda Swinton gets set to play Nico in a forthcoming biopic scripted by Blade Runner scribes David and Janet Peoples.
Don’t go mistakin’ Paradise…
The official Bob Dylan site retools for No Direction Home, a 2-hour documentary on Bob circa 1961-1966 and directed by none other than Martin Scorsese. It’ll premiere on PBS on 9/26 and 9/27 (and on DVD 9/20), and will be accompanied by a seventh volume in the Bootleg series.
Now This is Fun.
“I see ourselves alongside U2 and R.E.M. more than any of the bands we came up with, although really we don’t fit in and we never have, and I’ve come to embrace that.” Dave Gahan and Depeche Mode start up the publicity for Playing the Angel, their new album due out in October. The first single — “Precious” — has leaked, and after a couple of listens I already like it better than anything on the last album, with the possible exception of “When the Body Speaks.” It’s good to hear Dave, Andy, and Marty kicking the old-school synth flavors again.