Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s 2013 documentary is an investigation into the life of Tilikum, a bull orca living in SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Tilikum has been involved in the deaths of three trainers: Keitie Byrne in 1991, Daniel Dukes in 1999 and Dawn Brancheau in 2010. It is the third of these that is given the most coverage in the film, which is understandable as it was the starting point around which the rest of the investigation grew. The film also explores the cruel living conditions of orcas once in captivity when being used in waterpark entertainment shows, also touching on the hunting of Tilikum in the early 1980s and discussions on a psychological level on his mental condition after being mistreated for so long.
The contents of the film have been vehemently discredited by SeaWorld, who have distanced themselves from the final product. In the aftermath of its release, the company published an open letter to refute a number of the claims in the film and created a dedicated section of their website titled “Truth About Blackfish”. Despite this, a number of high profile musicians (including The Beach Boys and Barenaked Ladies) dropped out of an annual festival at the Orlando park and they also saw a drop in park attendance, though these two facts are likely closely linked. Furthermore, Pixar altered a section of the upcoming Finding Dory film that featured a depiction of a water park. It is clear that the message contained in Blackfish has resonated around the world and it’s significant that the general attitude has changed.
The reason for this is the huge power in both the content of the film and the expert manner in which it is told. Cowperthwaite is understandably very passionate about the subject matter and clearly open a can of worms in the journey she went on in the creation of the film. Like any great documentary, that passion is transferred directly to the viewer.
Regardless of any bias included in order to help tell the story, any other details would be mere branches of excuses and extenuating circumstances. The bottom line here is that the capture and holding of orcas in order to get them to perform in shows is a travesty. The saddening thing for me is that I have been to the Orlando park and enjoyed the show there, just before the film was released in the UK. Had I known about it my attitude would certainly have been completely different. Like the thousands of people who have seen this film and also attended the shows, I’m embarrassed by the fact I saw the show as a fun experience. Now I can see it more clearly: it’s plainly a form of cruelty to animals and should be stopped.
Blackfish is available on Netflix and can also be bought on Blu-Ray and DVD.
On Sunday I spent the day at Thirsty Meeples for a Settlers of Catan tournament. If that opening sentence has confused you, then I apologise. But I’ll explain.
Thirsty Meeples is an excellent café in Oxford centre, which specialises in board games. It’s a little bit like a board game library, only you can’t take the games away with you. You pay a small fee and can rent any games you want for the whole day. And they have plenty. 100s. It’s an immersive experience. The selection they have tends to pander to the modern board gamer, with plenty of German-style board and card games, gateway games and the like. So whilst they have the likes of Operation and Monopoly on offer, they also have five versions of Ticket To Ride, all the versions of Carcassone you can imagine and many, many copies of Settlers of Catan.
It is this last point that was critical to the surging popularity in these kinds of games in recent years. More than any other game, Catan (or Settlers if you prefer) has become the go-to game to introduce friends to a whole new world gaming. Designed by Klaus Teuber 1995, the basic game involves up to four players who each represent a settler on the resource-laden island of Catan. Players place settlements from the start, and these provide the ability to gain resources based on the roll of two dice. These can in turn be used to buy more settlements, cities (which double the resources gained), roads or development cards. The ultimate goal is to get to ten victory points before anyone, with points handed out for a number of different achievements (one for settlements, two for cities, two for the longest road, etc.) I’ve perhaps not explained it very well, but its simplicity led to it being taken up at a hugely rapid rate and it is now the leading light in getting people into these kinds of games.
So it is for this reason that there is now a National Settlers of Catan tournament, with regional heats held in 12 different locations, one of which being Thirsty Meeples. It was a worthy excuse to make the long journey over from the East Midlands to check it out.
The tournament was set up so that you received 5 points for a win and 2 points for a second-place finish. There were 11 players, each playing 3 games in the round robins. After these games, the four players with the most points were pitted against one-another in a single game to determine who the heat winner was.
I won zero games and came runner up in two, though one of them was a joint runner-up position so I only amassed three points in total. I was out, but thankfully my wife was having a much better day. She managed two wins in three games, landing her 10 tournament points and a place in the final. Unfortunately, she didn’t win, but it was closely fought and she left with her head held high.
It was a fantastic day and we also found time to play a number of other games. We ended up buying Love Letter, Splendor and Star Wars: The Card Game, having either played them or had them recommended to us.
We’ll be back next year to see if we can go one step further and reach the national finals
Revisiting the familiar forest moon of Endor but set prior to the events portrayed in Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, Ewok Adventures: Caravan of Courage brings back the popular Ewok characters from the third film in the original trilogy, including fan-favourite Wicket (reprised by Warwick Davis) in a family-oriented fun adventure. The plot revolves around the children of the Towani family – Mace and Cindel – who are marooned on Endor when their civilian craft crash lands and their parents are kidnapped by the evil giant Gorax. Teaming up with the Ewoks, they go on an adventure to rescue their parents and escape to safety.
The first thing that jumps out at you when you start watching this film is the low production costs. It retains a lot of the production team that were involved in the original trilogy, but the budget and time constraints meant it feels a lot more cinematic than we’d expect. Indeed, it was a made-for-TV movie and the resolution available in 1984 meant they didn’t need to worry about spectacular visuals. Crucially, George Lucas was on board as a scriptwriter and a producer, meaning the film doesn’t escape from the canon in ways that the Star Wars Holiday Special was unfortunately allowed to.
The main human characters Mace and Cindel are interesting. The former, played by a young Eric Walker, was clearly chosen for his similar appearance to Mark Hamill. This is a bit of a cheap shot and his character is a little whiny, meaning he’s never very likeable. His younger sister is portrayed by Aubree Miller, in one of only two films she ever made (the other being this film’s sequel, 1985’s Battle For Endor). She is far easier to like and the fact she is a young girl in a leading role was probably a decision based on widening the male-centric fanbase of the Star Wars universe.
There has been much debate over whether or not this film should be classed as part of the official canon. It’s a tough one to call. In my opinion, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be, though it is more complicated than you’d think. The sequel, in which the Ewoks begin to speak English, plants it after the events of Return of the Jedi. This one, however, is set prior to that film, meaning the timeline of events over the three films is pretty tight if they are canon. To be honest though, if they’re happy for Episodes I-III to be included then these should be. They’re better films.
Neither of the Ewok Adventure films are currently available on Blu-ray, though they did enjoy a double DVD release around ten years ago. They’re still freely available online to purchase, though occasionally the entire films are put up on YouTube and stay there until the rights holders realise and remove the video. I think they should be embraced with a full re-release, with proper restoration, commentary and extras. It’s a no brainer. It would be a popular release and would widen the popularity of two films that really aren’t bad enough to want to hide from the public.
These are nice options to watch on Star Wars Day this coming Monday. I’ve embedded the YouTube video below for ease of watching as a sample in case you wish to purchase.
Sean Connery is one of the most renowned British actors of all time. He has starred in so many well regarded and successful films, including The Hunt For Red October, The Untouchables and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He is, of course, remembered most fondly for his performance as the quintessential James Bond, starting with Dr No in 1962 and finishing with Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. He also reprised Bond in 1983 with Never Say Never Again.
His prominent films remain prominent and he will be remembered for these great successes. That said, unless you go out of your way to seek his wider body of work, it’s quite difficult to build up a fuller idea of his talents.
Fortunately, Masters of Cinema are on hand to help us out a little, pointing us in the direction of The Offence, Sidney Lumet’s cross-section of Detective-Sergeant Johnson (Connery) and his struggle to cope with the inner demons he has as a result of the constant horrors he sees in his line of work. Released in 1972, it was one of the earliest post-Bond films he released so was one of his first chances to show the world his full gamut of talents.
The film opens with a bold slow-motion shot of policemen rushing into an interrogation room, where we find Johnson fighting off his colleagues, with the dead beaten body of Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen) lying on the floor. Evidently Johnson has killed Baxter and through a series of flashbacks we discover the chain of events that lead to this happening.
This is an excellent performance from Connery, adding weight to a character that has been carefully constructed by screenwriter John Hopkins. The story is told in a non-linear way, which is cleverly executed to ensure the reveals happen at regular intervals. Bannen’s performance kept me second-guessing throughout and ensured it wasn’t just a one-man-show. It’s a stylish and grim view of Britain in the 1970s and it hits home further by being so realistic, which I credit to director Sidney Lumet and his work with cinematographer Gerry Fisher.
It’s a film that warrants a first and indeed second viewing. The latter will undoubtedly come before long. I’ll be devouring the bountiful array of extras first.
The Offence is available on Master of Cinema dual-format Blu-ray and DVD now.
Back in the 80s and 90s, The Nerd was easy to spot. He (for it was almost always a he) was invariably skin and bones, very much into maths and computers, could probably code at least a rudimentary game on his BBC, had glasses and possibly long hair. He was single. He had acne. He was Screech from Saved by the Bell.
This was a great time to be a screenwriter of anything that needed to stereotype a nerd into the story. The stereotype was probably quite realistic, and there were so few nerds around it didn’t really matter if you upset them.
In the intervening years, however, having a home computer has gone from nothing to being the norm. It would be unusual to find someone under the age of 70 without access to some kind of computer at home. Computer literacy isn’t just a niche skill but a requirement of life.
At the same time there has been a prominent increase in the popularity of comic book characters, mainly through the string of highly successful superhero films. This led to a greater increase in comics and graphic novels themselves as people sought out the source material of their screen idols.
Finally, the popularity of video games has grown exponentially, with a different game and platform to suit everyone’s needs, from the experienced MMORPG gamer to those that want to play Kwazy Kupcakes whilst sat on the toilet. Whether we like it or not, almost everyone is a gamer of some kind. Indeed, the biggest market for video games is adult women, thanks in part to the likes of Farmville and Candy Crush Saga. [1]
The point is that everything we associated with nerds from 30 years ago is now a given of everyday life for the majority of people. More and more on nights out, especially with people I don’t really know very well, I’m confident that if conversation dries up I can strike up a conversation about the latest Marvel Studios film, or a big new video game, or some kind of off-mainstream television series. This is becoming my fall-back conversation far more than, say, ten years ago, when I would invariably go to football or another kind of mainstream sport. Just yesterday I was with some work colleagues, most of which I didn’t know, and we chatted for over an hour about the new Daredevil series (which I’m yet to see), Avengers: Age of Ultron, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the new Mario Kart DLC. Sport wasn’t mentioned once and I don’t think it would have been welcome if it had been.
So, there’s plenty of growth in the nerd-themed markets to come over the next few years and I’m sure the various industries are planning ahead to make money out of them. Maybe Revenge of the Nerds will be remade in a few years as Revenge of the Jocks. Who knows?
[1] Women over 18 made up a 36% share of all video gamers compared to men over 18, who make up 35%. The above comment is only half-true too. Whilst Farmville and Candy Crush Saga have surely helped the over 50s category, I don’t see it being a large contributing factor to the 18-30s at all. I just don’t know many people in that age range playing these kinds of games – male or female – but I do know plenty of young and experienced female gamers who wouldn’t think anything of picking up the latest 1stperson shooter, a genre traditionally associated with male gamers. One of the big wins for this is the de-fragmentation of the market. Making a game specifically designed for men or women is soon going to be a thing of the past because the lines have become so blurred and you simply can’t stereotype gaming preferences by gender any more.
At first, The Trip seems like a terrible proposition. It can be summed up as follows: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing exaggerated versions of themselves, visit six Michelin-starred restaurants in Northern England to review them for an Observer article, spending most of their time together bickering over who can do better impressions of a number of famous people. Well, about seven famous people.
Somehow, over the course of six episodes in the first series, they make it a success so consistently I was left wondering how such a simple idea could fail to work when the two central characters have so much chemistry together. The whole thing is clearly full of improvisations and no matter how many times we hear Michael Caine, Hugh Grant and Ronnie Corbett, they never fail to disappoint.
Yet at the heart of the show we find that it isn’t just a whimsical improvised comedy that borders on self-indulgence, but rather a dissection of one man’s inner struggle to come to terms with the level and manner of his past successes. Coogan’s desire is to alter his legacy and change the public perception of him as a character comedian to something of more substance by taking on more serious roles. He doesn’t see himself as a comedian but as a character actor. His biggest frustrations come from interchanges with Brydon who discusses their similarities, which is hard to receive from a man who Coogan sees as simply an impressionist.
In many ways, parallels can be drawn with Michael Keaton’s recent performance in Birdman, a role that won Keaton an Oscar. In that film, Keaton pushes himself to the cusp of a breakdown as he ploughs all his remaining money and efforts into a theatrical production that he thinks will completely overhaul the public perception of him. It was ironic that Keaton, in this film, established himself as an actor of serious depth in a role that exaggerated the public’s perception of his own life. Similarly here, Coogan manages to come out of the series with a huge level of credibility for his portrayal of a man striving for more, finishing the six-part series almost completely emotionally broken. It is an excellent performance from Coogan and one I’m sure he’d rather be remembered for than Pauline Calf and Alan Partridge.
On the back of this, Coogan went on to star in the Oscar-nominated Philomena, and duly received critical acclaim for another role of real substance. Perhaps The Trip was the stepping stone onto this, but the fact a follow-up was commissioned in 2014 suggests both Brydon and Coogan know that they hit on something special in the first series.
The Trip is available to watch on Netflix UK and can be purchased on Blu-ray or DVD.
[Note] I can only apologise to the creator of the lovely alternative poster at the top of the page. I can’t give credit as the website from which it was sourced (movieweb) has lost the page. It is lovely though.
I’ve just watched the infamous Robert Downey Jr. interview walkout. I recommend you watch it too, especially if you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you read the articles without watching the video, then you’re playing into the hands of the kind of journalism RDJ was walking out of.
The way Guru-Murthy conducts himself in the interview is very much the same as he did in the Quentin Tarantino interview a couple of years ago. He sets his stalls out to deliberately antagonise the star in an attempt to become the focus of the interview and further his credibility. It’s completely disrespectful and I truly hope it backfires.
In an eight-minute interview for a blockbuster superhero movie, it’s too much to try to get under the skin in a way that doesn’t seem superficial. I can totally understand RDJ’s reaction and I hope it doesn’t damage the credibility he has been restoring for the last fifteen years, following his release from prison on drug charges. I just don’t get why you’d do this to such a likeable guy.
The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) sees the ever-growing cast of superheroes pitted against Ultron, the villainous result of an experiment in peacekeeping by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner that goes catastrophically wrong. Bringing back almost all the huge stars from the previous films (Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman were the only notable omissions), we see a number of dynamic storylines interwoven intelligently with some hugely impressive action sequences and set pieces delivering an answer to the age old question “What does a $250m film-making budget buy you these days?”. Quite a lot actually.
The opening sequence, set in the frosty hills of Sokovia, a fictional Eastern-European country, was one of the best opening action sequences I’ve ever seen, slowly re-introducing our familiar heroes one at a time whilst setting up the plot for the rest of the film, along with two of the main enemies they would encounter: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch respectively). It had enough elements to feel like we hadn’t seen it before and had an over-arching purpose so the spectacle didn’t feel gratuitous.
There has been a concerted effort this time to give more depth to the main characters that are yet to have their own standalone films. Clint Barton / Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is arguably the central character this time around. He is portrayed as the emotional glue that holds the rest of the team together and he finally gets the opportunity to prove how integral he is. It’s a nice touch as he is perhaps the least super of our superheroes, though I must say the manner in which they introduce a backstory for him is a little clumsy. There’s probably not enough depth to the character to warrant a stand-alone film so this is a great substitute.
Elsewhere Bruce Banner / Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) have a blossoming romance, and we get to see a softer side to both characters that hadn’t been shown before. The intimacy reminded me a little of the now-much-underrated Peter Jackson version of King Kong, with Naomi Watts’s Ann Darrow playing off against Andy Serkis’s ape to a never-before-seen level of motion and facial expression capturing. It made me really keen to see a standalone film exploring their relationship more, though how that would fit into the grander scheme of planned films I’m not sure.
It was nice that Andy Serkis got a cameo appearance as Ulysses Klaw, along with many other recognisable stars (I’d put Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle and Anthony Mackie in this category due to their limited screen time). His accent fell somewhere between East London, Eastern European and the required South African, though he’ll get chance to further develop that in Black Panther in 2018 [1].
Johannesburg is just one of many recognisable cities from around the globe that shows up in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Another such city is Seoul in South Korea. Interestingly, the Korean government reportedly paid Marvel Studios £2.4m for Seoul to be portrayed in a positive light for tourism purposes. I don’t think this is a problem really. It was just nice that London didn’t get blown up. Again.
I’ve seen a lot of huge blockbuster films fall flat in recent years. Any of the Transformers sequels, The Dark Knight Rises, Pacific Rim, Real Steel. More often than not, they just aren’t amazing films. Marvel, however, get it right time and time again. With a wave of films being announced to take us up to the end of the decade, the test will come not in successfully releasing a film like Avengers: Age of Ultron, a film destined for success. Rather, the true test will come with a film like Ant Man, due for release later this year. It’s a film everyone thinks will be a huge flop. If they can pull that one off and make it successful, then they truly do have the Midas touch.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is in UK cinemas now and globally over the next month. [2] [3]
[1] Ulysses Klaw is the main enemy of Black Panther, for which there is a MCU film set for release in 2018. Chadwick Boseman is set to star in the lead role.
[2] There is only one post-credit sequence this time around, which appears about halfway through. There is nothing at the end after the credits so you don’t need to wait. Howard the Duck does not appear.
[3] I went to see this film with fellow WordPress blogger Jordana Makin, who has a blog titled “Ahoy Small Fry“. Check it out, it’s pretty cool.
While We’re Young is the latest film from Noah Baumbach, following the recent critical successes of 2010’s Greenberg and 2012’s Frances Ha. The film stars Ben Stiller as established documentary filmmaker Josh, now struggling to find the inspiration and money to finish his current project, and Adam Driver as young aspiring documentary filmmaker Darby, who seemingly hits on endless streams of ideas without much effort. Naomi Watts and Amanda Seyfried also star as Josh’s wife Cornelia and Darby’s wife Jamie, respectively, though the men take centre-stage as the focal point of the slow-reveal story.
This is an excellent film with an intelligent theme. As is often the case with films about filmmaking, the central characters are extremely rich in backstory and well-realised. Ben Stiller himself is an actor, director, producer and writer (his last feature as director being 2013’s admirable The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) and I’m sure he drew on his experiences to add depth to his character. He brilliantly paints the frustrated picture of a man desperate to stay true to the values of filmmaking whilst at the same time reacting in disbelief that nobody else wants to follow that same journey with him. It’s yet another example of Stiller at the top of his game and it’s a shame that the box office receipts for his more serious roles are inevitably dwarfed by those of, for example, the Night at the Museum franchise.
Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller co-star in While We’re Young.
Both couples give the impression of aspiring to live out of their own time and the emotional plot devices are driven by the fact that the elder couple is far less comfortable trying to fit in with the younger generations than vice-versa. For Darby and Jamie, attempting to remember a morsel of information they’d forgotten is the source of great fun; they are determined to avoid becoming reliant on modern technology when it is to the detriment of thought-provoking discussion. Conversely, Josh and Cornelia are much quicker to jump onto their tablet device to find their answers as they would rather find the solution as quickly as possible. This was initially a clever role-reversal to aide character development, though it becomes a key part of the plot further down the line (and one which I won’t go into here).
One of my favourite aspects of the film is the excellent soundtrack. James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem fame) provides the original score and has compiled a playlist of original songs, including Paul McCartney and Wings, David Bowie and Haim. The song choices mix the old and new in a way that underlines how little the musical landscape has changed, but it also serves to reflect the dovetailed lives of our four main characters. The songs sit side-by-side with one-another and the particular choices are all artists that would be deemed fashionable by the Topshop generation, either in a serious or ironic way.
It is a critical time in Adam Driver’s career. Regardless of whether the upcoming Star Wars films are successes or flops, it is inevitable that the careers of the main stars will be defined for the foreseeable future by such a massive franchise. Both Driver and his co-star Oscar Isaac have been rapidly adding to a varied list of assured performances in the last year or two, though less has been happening with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, who are being touted as the main stars. This could potentially be seen as a risky strategy. Driver can be happy that he can add this excellent performance alongside his roles in Lincoln and Inside Llewyn Davis as prime examples of his acting ability. Oscar Isaac is already well-established with plenty of huge roles under his belt. Time will probably prove that this was a wise move for their post-Star Wars careers.
This film is highly recommended and should be sought out if you get the chance. You simply can’t argue with such an intelligent script, especially when it’s delivered in a package like this.
While We’re Young is on general release at cinemas in the UK now.
I’ve just got home from Nottingham after visiting Rough Trade for Record Store Day. It has become somewhat of a pilgrimage for my wife and I who do this every year and we always have a great day out with today being no exception. I have to say that Rough Trade has been the best experience I’ve ever had at a Record Store Day event, and the fun is still going on as I type. Get down there quick!
Supergrass – Sofa (of my Lethargy)
As I mentioned in my preview, top of the bill was a 7″ vinyl pressing of Supergrass track “Sofa (of my Lethargy)”. It was fantastic to hear that this was finally being released. A promotional CD had been sent around to radios ahead of the Mercury Music Prize on 12th September 1995, which was a couple of months after “Alright” (and “Time”, technically) had infested the charts and infected the subconscious of an entire nation. Previously the only way to hear the radio edit was to get hold of that promo CD or a copy of the Ten Albums of the Year promotional CD issued as a tie-in with the Mercury Music Prize that year. Finally, however, this release has seen the light of day and allows “Sofa…” to sit pretty with the rest of my Supergrass 7″ vinyl singles, in all its luscious green glory.
However, for the die-hard Supergrass fans out there, there is also a much more interesting track on the b-side. Titled “I Believe In Love”, it is an out-take from the “I Should Coco” sessions from 1995 and represents the first new Supergrass material to be released since the “Rebel In You” b-side “Car Crash” in 2008 (also a vinyl-exclusive). It’s a nice catchy summer tune with a memorable “Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba” chorus. It sits somewhere between early Supergrass and stuff most of the band had been producing as part of The Jennifers, though it doesn’t give any of the album tracks a run for their money. A nice track to hear and I’m sure it will see the light of day on a CD re-issue sooner or later.
Matt Berry / Mark Morriss – This Is The Lie (and That’s the Truth) / October Sun
I’m a huge fan of Mark Morriss, who has been working hard since the break up in 2011 of The Bluetones. One of his projects is playing rhythm guitar in Matt Berry and The Maypoles. Another is as a solo artist in his own right, most recently releasing the excellent 2013 album A Flash of Darkness. Combining these two elements, this Acid Jazz Records release (the home of both Mark and Matt) sees Mark cover Matt track “October Sun” as the AA-side, whilst the A-side is a version of “This Is The Lie (And That’s the Truth)” by Matt Berry. Both tracks are excellent and this item is a must have for fans of either, especially given that the songs contained aren’t available anywhere else. Keep an ear out for the new psychedelic ending to the A-side, which takes the song in a whole new direction.
Syd Barrett / R.E.M. – Dark Globe / Dark Globe
One of many Side-by-Side releases this Record Store Day, this item sees the song “Dark Globe” performed by its original writer and performer Syd Barrett and what many consider the definitive version as performed by R.E.M. The latter originally included it as the b-side to “Orange Crush”, though it later reappeared on the b-side to one of their biggest hits “Everybody Hurts” after successfully being included as a regular on their touring setlist. I have to say, R.E.M. take the bare-bones of a song and turn it into something haunting, revealing layers that aren’t even evident in the original version. This is a nice artifact for fans of Pink Floyd and R.E.M. (of which there are many), but it’s also a really effective way to compare the two versions. It may seem a little more back-to-back than side-to-side, but somehow it works.
Graham Miller and Steve Shill – The Moomins Theme
A bit of an oddball release this one, but not so if you’re aware of the Finders Keepers record label. Whilst the label website provides a comprehensive overview of what they do there, it is essentially a label lovingly overseen by Andy Votel and Doug Shipton who dedicate a disproportionate amount of their time to seeking out obscure, rare and forgotten music from around the globe, with a heavy emphasis on soundtracks of (usually) unknown films. The results are more often than not astounding and I’ve never been disappointed with a release.
The item we get this Record Store Day is a debut release for The Moomins Theme as created by Graeme Miller and Steve Shill. It was a UK-specific release as they were hired to re-soundtrack the show ahead of it being brought to UK television screens in 1983. The contents of the vinyl are quirky but worth the attention that has already been afforded by those behind the release. The packaging alone is worth your money – a hand-stitched fuzzy felt sleeve in one of two designs (approximately 450 each). Snap it up before it disappears for another 32 years!
Other Items
One of my favourite items from Record Store 2015
I was able to pick up three (THREE!) David Bowie releases, the nicest of which is probably the “Changes” picture disc. There was also a lovely Foo Fighters 10″ vinyl titled “Songs From The Laundry Room”, which features demos of two tracks from their debut eponymous release, plus a cover of Kim Wilde’s “Kids In America” and a new track “Empty Handed”. The White Stripes released “Get Behind Me Satan” on vinyl for the first time, which I was lucky enough to locate. Finally, I was extremely pleased to find the Silva Screens Records release of the Psycho orchestral themes, which is a beautiful piece for cinephiles like myself.
I missed out on Paul McCartney’s “The Family Way OST”, though I’m hoping to pick it up at a later date. One missed item from such a long list isn’t bad, even though I did have to set my alarm to 2am to guarantee my luck.
Cinema, etc. 