Tag: John Williams
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On Music: John Williams, Jedi Master of Film Composition, Celebrates His 90th Birthday Today!
Greetings, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. It is a gray, chilly Florida winter day in the Tampa Bay area. Currently, the temperature is 54˚F (12˚C) under cloudy conditions. With humidity at 86% and the wind blowing from the north-northeast at 9 MPH (13 KM/H), the wind…
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Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, February 1, 2022, or: On the Passage of Time (and Other, Trivial Topics)
Greetings, Dear Reader. It is mid-morning here in Lithia, Florida on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. It is another chilly winter day in the Tampa Bay area, although there is a bit of a warming trend today. Presently the temperature is 51˚F (11˚C) under sunny conditions, although with the wind blowing from the east at 5…
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Musings & Thoughts for Friday, January 21, 2022, or: Closely Watched Packages – ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ CD Edition
Hi, there. Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Friday, January 21, 2022. It is a chilly day here in the west-central part of the state. Currently, the temperature is 71˚F (21˚C) under mostly cloudy skies. With humidity at 77% and the wind blowing from the northeast at 3 MPH (4 KM/H0,…
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Musings & Thoughts for Monday, January 17, 2022, or: Cold Weather & New CDs
Hi there, Dear Reader. It is a chilly afternoon here in Lithia, Florida on Monday, January 17, 2022. It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and it is cold – by the standards of us subtropical denizens; I know that some of you who live up in colder climes don’t think 60˚F (16˚C) is cold,…
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On Music: Meet My Latest Musical Find – ‘Spotlight on John Williams’
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in Lithia, Florida on Tuesday, December 28, 2021. It is a warm winter day in the Sunshine State. Currently, the temperature is 77˚F (25˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 66% and the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 7 MPH (12 KM/H), the feels-like temperature…
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A Writer’s Tale: Of Names and Songs
Many years ago, when I still lived in Miami, Florida, I wrote a short story which was both a coming-of-age tale and also a look at an older man who must re-examine his youthful choices after a tragic incident kills his high school “crush.” As Reunion’s summary reads on the back cover and on its…
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Movie Review: ‘Black Sunday’ (1977)
Black Sunday (1977) Written by: Ernest Lehman, Kenneth Ross, and Ivan Moffat Directed by: John Frankenheimer Starring: Bruce Dern, Martha Keller, Robert Shaw, Fritz Weaver On March 11, 1977, nearly a quarter of a century before Al Qaeda’s horrifying attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, a relatively small…
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Music Album Review: ‘By Request…: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra’
In 1987, the Dutch record label Philips Records[1] (Philips Phonographische in Dutch) released By Request…: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, a compilation album featuring 12 themes or overtures, two “special events” fanfares, and one television theme[2] composed by Oscar and Grammy Award-winning composer conductor John Williams. At the time of…
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Book Review: ‘The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films’
This film could very easily not be a hit. All films are a risk. I mean, there’s no way to know. You can’t predict a hit.” – George Lucas, on Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 On May 20, 2008, Del Rey Books – an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of Penguin Random House…
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On Music: My Top 10 John Williams ‘Star Wars’ Themes
I have been a fan of John Williams’ symphonic scores ever since I saw the original Star Wars – aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – in the autumn of 1977[1] For me, Williams’ swashbuckling, neo-Romantic themes and action cues sold the rest of George Lucas’s out-of-this-world space-fantasy about “a boy, a girl,…
A Certain Point of View, Too 