'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Blackmore's Night II
By Baron Dave Romm
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Blackmore's Night was founded in the mid-1990s when Ritchie Blackmore, the founding guitarist with the 60s-90s rock group Deep Purple, discovered a mutual interest in Renaissance Music with Candice Night. I reviewed their first three albums last week: Blackmore's Night I. I'll review their live double album and DVD/CD set next week.
The Blackmore's Night merchandise page, is up and has been expanded to include books, beer steins, DVDs and more. The CD page has the albums for sale, plus several songs available for sampling, and I'll continue to reference the other commercial pages for individual albums.
Ghost Of A Rose continues their trend away from true Celtic Folk/Rock into harder rock music and easy listening lyrics. My favorite cut on the CD is instrumental Queen For A Day (part II). Queen For A Day (part I) sounds medieval, but the lyrics are gentle and wistful:
They do a rockin' Aughts version of Jethro Tull's Rainbow Blues and a dreamy, swirling, cover or Joan Baez' Diamonds and Rust. Both these songs are about (among other things) looking back nostalgically, with regret or acceptance. Hindsight is a key theme of Blackmore's Night. Dandelion Wine (not to be confused with the Canadian folk group Dandelion Wine named after the Bradbury story) asks "where has all the time gone?" 3 Black Crows look down on us mere humans as we pass by and cackle in joy at their freedom. Remembering a brief affair is symbolized by the Ghost of a Rose. Way to Mandalayy wanders down a pathway "he did a thousand times before" until she's trapped by the journey. Where Are We Going From Here looks back with "lines on my face, lines on my hands" but points forward.
Ghost Of A Rose continues the solid craftsmanship of Ritchie Blackmore's music tempered with Candace Night's gentle romantic lyrics and lovely singing voice. On the CD is a bonus video track of Way To Mandalay which has everything that's right about Blackmore's Night, and exposes their weakness: Pretty images, Renaissance costumes, professional rock music with no emotional feel for the subject matter. If you liked their earlier albums you'll probably like Ghost Of A Rose, but it's not the best introduction to the group.
The Village Lanterne is even more rock, and even more lush, to the point of being overproduced. I really looked forward to this album, since it has a cover of my all-time favorite song, Streets of London:
Meanwhile, some of the production works. Continuing the theme of looking back, Village Lanterne, inspired by the Siegfried cycle, describes the emotional journey from being alone to sharing battle scars with a lover:
Another song that worked (for me) was John Osborne's St. Teresa, which starts with a bravura guitar solo which becomes driving rock. The production fits the song which is about (I think) a drug dealer, much like Friend of the Devil or Mr. Tambourine Man. Similarly, the Celtic Folk/Rock Mond Tanz/Child In Time slips from a good instrumental to a revised take on Blackmore's Deep Purple anthem Child In Time; the juxtaposition enhances both.
I hear Spanish influences in the instrumental The Messenger, some of which colors Windmills. Nominally about The Man of La Mancha, it's hard to take that from the lyrics, which don't mention Don Quixote or tilting at imaginary beasts. Medieval mythology is explored in Faerie Queen, about loss and hope. I just made a mix CD on the theme of Drinking, for Marscon and could have used Old Mill Inn, about camaraderie
Village Lanterne is a bit too baroque for my taste in Renaissance music, but the maturity of the artists carry great weight. If you like the Rock part of Celtic Folk/Rock more than the Folk part, you'll like this CD. It has several iPw cuts.
Instead of a movie for a bonus track, they add three songs, including a "Radio Edit" of a song from a previous album. Those two version plus another are on the CD Single All Because of You, so let me briefly talk about it here. The Album Version from Fires At Midnight is the third cut, and the Radio Romantic Mix from Village Lanterne cut is first. The Regenwald Mix, cut #2, may actually be my favorite. It's got all the bells and whistles of an overproduced techno mix, and that's what a lot of Blackmore's Night feels like anyway. Almost disco, with some vocal filtering and overdubs. The Album Version is danceable, with various celtic instruments. The Radio Romantic Mix is more rock, but danceable. The song is clearly their attempt at a Top-40 "Music To Fuck By" hit. I did not do a field test. If you like the song in any of the album versions, the EP isn't worth it for the one version not on either of the other CDs, but if you really like the song, go for it.
Unlike all the other Blackmore's Night CDs, their most recent offering, Winter Carols, does not come with a lyric booklet. That's probably because most of the songs are familiar. The exceptions are the two originals by Blackmore and the Chanukkah song.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing/Come All Ye Faithful and I Saw Three Ships get rousing, lush orchestration. Standard well produced (some may say overproduced) Celtic Folk/Rock (but mainly rock) with organ and violins as traditional for Christmas carols. While they are mostly traditional songs, the lyrics are interpretive. More secular, as befitting a "Winter" CD vs. a "Christmas" CD. Being Jewish in a Christian society, I had to sing Christmas Carols in Choir, and slurred over a few words. Mostly, these versions don't require that sort of scrupulous diffidence. Thanks.
Even Ding Dong Merrily On High starts off sweet and understated, then builds to an uplifting counterpoint. Ma-O-Tzur starts off with the Sephardi Hebrew than repeats with a non-traditional, almost Christian, interpretation of the words. Good King Wenceslas gets medieval instrumentation, though more Scottish than Polish. Lord of the Dance/Simple Gifts interweaves both interpretations for a stately inspiring dance which fades slowly and leads into the next cut, the joyous We Three Kings. They reprise Wish You Were Here from their first album, about missing someone during winter. As I write this, it's about -10C in Mpls, and I'm not going anywhere, so I can relate.
I'd never heard Emmanuel growing up in New York. Maybe it's a regional thing. The song always struck me as odd, an attempt to reconcile differing prophecies about the messiah. This version is gentle and reverent. "We gather together on Christmas Eve, peace to everyone" goes their original addition to the carol pantheon. We Wish You A Merry Christmas is a traditional Dickens-ish Christmas carol, sung by a choir that just begs to be invited in for wassail.
I'm vastly amused that I have a large collection of Christmas music, much of it traditional. Winter Carols is a good addition to my collection. Few of the renditions are stand-out, but all are nicely done and if you like Blackmore's Night style of Renaissance-influenced rock, you'll like this CD.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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Up to the walls of Jericho
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E. J. Dionne Jr.: Molly Ivins's Joyful Outrage (washingtonpost.com)
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and summer-ish.
Martin Scorsese Finally Wins
DGA
Martin Scorsese won the top honor Saturday from the Directors Guild of America for his mob saga "The Departed," moving him a step closer to finally receiving Hollywood's biggest filmmaking prize at the Academy Awards.
Walter Hill won the guild's directing honor for TV movies for the Western "Broken Trail."
Other TV winners included Richard Shepard for comedy directing on the pilot episode of "Ugly Betty," Jon Cassar for drama directing for an episode of "24," and "Chicago" filmmaker Rob Marshall for musical variety directing for "Tony Bennett: An American Classic."
Arunas Matelis won for feature-film documentary for "Before Flying Back to the Earth," a portrait of children hospitalized with leukemia. The film won over two Oscar nominees, "Deliver Us From Evil" and "Iraq in Fragments."
DGA
'Theodore Tugboat' Jacket Auctioned
Denny Doherty
A simple, navy jacket believed to be worn by Halifax native Denny Doherty on the children's television program "Theodore Tugboat" fetched $250 at a Nova Scotia auction on Sunday.
Doherty, who died more than two weeks ago at the age of 66, is also known as a member of the '60s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas.
The jacket, which was auctioned off in Windsor, was worn by Doherty when he played the friendly harbourmaster on the CBC-produced "Theodore Tugboat" in the 1990s, said auctioneer Margie Carter.
"Theodore Tugboat," which featured a cast of radio-controlled model tugboats, was broadcast on CBC and later in the United States on PBS, a non-profit public broadcaster.
Denny Doherty
Political Theatre Boom
London
A musical about a 1960s scandal involving a Cabinet minister, a showgirl and a top Soviet official is the latest drama using the London stage to expose politicians' foibles -- often to comic effect.
"A Model Girl" focuses on the explosive Profumo Affair, which saw war secretary John Profumo resign in 1963 from Harold Macmillan's government after lying about his affair with Christine Keeler.
The affair came to symbolise a new wave of sexual liberation and dissent. It also highlighted the old adage that truth can be stranger than fiction -- like many other political shows currently playing in the British capital.
London theatre circles have a number of theories to explain the present boom, which comes as the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who has pledged to stand down by September -- plays out its final months with "cash for honours" corruption allegations swirling closer to Downing Street.
London
Imelda Marcos Pop Opera
David Byrne
Talking Heads singer David Byrne has launched the US debut of his pop opera on the life of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines.
Co-written with British DJ Fatboy Slim, "Here Lies Love" -- a 23-song romp through Marcos' life -- had its US premier late Saturday at New York's Carnegie Hall, where the repertory usually runs to the more classical.
Byrne said he drew inspiration from Imelda's love for disco music and the iconic disco-era New York club Studio 54.
David Byrne
Replacing Wright At NBC
Jeff Zucker
Jeff Zucker, who made his mark as executive producer of NBC's "Today" show, is expected to be named chief executive of NBC Universal this week, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Zucker, 41, will succeed Bob Wright, who has headed the network for 21 years, company sources told the Los Angeles Times.
Wright, 63, had planned to stay on as CEO at least until the end of the year. But Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric Co., the owner of NBC Universal, insisted the change come immediately, according to the company sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the switch hadn't been announced.
Jeff Zucker
Actor Arrested
Ryan O'Neal
Authorities have accused Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O'Neal of assaulting his adult son, Griffin, at the actor's home over the weekend.
Deputies and paramedics were called to O'Neal's home at 12:30 a.m. Saturday "regarding a battery that had occurred," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. John Benedict said Sunday.
Ryan O'Neal, 65, was arrested and accused of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm. He was released on a $50,000 bond.
Ryan O'Neal
Actor Arrested In Fatal Elevator Fall
Granville Adams
Police early Sunday arrested Granville Adams, 43, and charged him with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Orlando Valle, 35.
Investigators said the two men fought early Saturday morning at BED New York, a club in the Chelsea neighborhood known for providing beds for its lounging patrons. It was once featured on the TV show "Sex and the City."
Adams pushed Valle against sixth-floor elevator doors, which opened, causing Valle to fall into the shaft, police said. A message left at a Brooklyn telephone number listed for Adams was not immediately returned early Sunday.
Granville Adams
Wookiee Impersonator
Chewbacca
The buzz on Hollywood Boulevard on Friday was over the Chewbacca who police say crossed over to the dark side in front of hundreds of tourists at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
LAPD officers arrested "Star Wars" street performer Frederick Evan Young, 44, of Los Angeles in his furry brown wookiee costume Thursday on a charge of misdemeanor battery for allegedly head-butting a tour guide who complained about Young's treatment of two visitors from Japan.
The incident - witnessed by Superman and other impersonators - is the latest clash outside the landmark cinema between visitors and performers dressed as movie and cartoon characters. They collect tips from tourists who pose for pictures and watch them perform in front of the theater, where generations of stars have placed their footprints in concrete.
Tourists have complained that some costumed characters turn abusive when they refuse to pay them to pose for pictures. Two years ago, actors dressed as superhero Mr. Incredible, Elmo the Muppet and the dark-hooded character from the movie "Scream" were arrested for aggressive begging. More recently, an actor portraying slasher movie favorite Freddie Krueger was taken into custody for allegedly stabbing another man, although no charges were filed.
Chewbacca
Soon To Disappear
Wonder Spot
In a wooded ravine tucked away from the water parks, restaurants and mega-resorts that dominate this tourist town, a piece of history is quietly dying.
After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.
Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s.
Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed "gravity vortexes" and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer.
Wonder Spot
One Survived Storm
Whooping Crane
A whooping crane was spotted alive on Sunday after it was believed killed with 17 others in severe Florida storms, according to an organizer of a migratory project.
Organizers received a signal from a transmitter on the young male crane on Saturday night and again on Sunday near where the endangered birds were kept in Citrus County, Fla. Later Sunday, they saw the survivor with two sandhill cranes, said Rachel Levin, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The 18 whooping cranes were being kept in an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, Fla., when violent storms moved in Thursday night.
The birds were led south in December by ultralight aircraft as part of a project to create a second migratory flock. Organizers of the project thought they had perished in the storms. But when they went to recover the cranes' carcasses Saturday.
Whooping Crane
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