Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Star Trek IV Time Travel and Saving the Whales

I’ve been so damn busy this week I need to learn that trick they pull in “Star Trek” where they slingshot around the sun and travel back in time.

You can be guaranteed, then, that I’ll be paying extra-close attention when I rewatch “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), in preparation for Roy and my discussion about the film on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. This is the one where Spock dons a bathrobe and headband in 20th Century San Francisco and mind melds with a humpback whale. With a high concept like that, is it any wonder it turned out to be the most financially successful of any “Star Trek” movie featuring the original cast?

With a new year approaching, my thoughts, in common with many others, I’m sure, are occupied with matters of time. If only we could travel back to 1986, maybe we too could save the world.

Weighty matters will be pondered, even as we embrace our inner geek. It will be all pointy heads and pointy ears as Roy and I discuss “Star Trek IV.” You’ll have a whale of time in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

December 28, 2023
Holiday Haul Books Music & Introvert’s Delight

Either I was rewarded for all my hard work or Santa got the wrong house, because I made out like a genetically-spliced amalgam of Old Man Potter, Ebenezer Scrooge, and the Grinch yesterday. I’ll have to build a new shelf in my library and carve out hours for listening, for all the books and compact discs I scored. Ironically, I probably wound up knocking years off my life from all the stress and lack of sleep leading up to so-called Silent Night. Lights out this morning at 1:15 a.m.

No snow on St. Stephen’s Day. All the same, I hope to cozy in with my hoard, once I get back from my wildlife food deliveries and perhaps plan what I’m going to play for this week’s radio shows, the last of 2023.

Happy holidays, everyone. Many of us, I’m sure, get better than we deserve. The least we can do is try and pay it forward – even as we introverts pine blearily for January, when we can slither back to our comfort zones for a much-desired long winter’s nap.

December 26, 2023
Herzogenberg Friend of Brahms and Forgotten Composer

The composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900), born in Graz, studied in Vienna, where he became a lifelong friend of Johannes Brahms. Of course, being friends with Brahms was a complicated matter. In particular, the older composer was not very diplomatic in his assessment of Herzogenberg’s music. However, toward the end of his life, he grudgingly offered, “Herzogenberg is able to do more than any of the others.”

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have music by Brahms’ faintly-praised confidant.

In 1874, Herzogenberg co-founded the Leipzig Bach-Verein, which dedicated itself to the revival of all the Bach cantatas. He served as its music director for ten years. Following the death of his wife in 1892, he turned increasingly to the writing of sacred music. In particular, he composed music for services of a Lutheran church in Strasbourg, though he himself remained a Roman Catholic. His models for these pieces were, naturally, the oratorios and passions of Bach.

Three large-scale works of the period call for members of the congregation to participate in the singing of the chorales.

“Die Geburt Christi,” or “The Birth of Christ,” written in 1894, betrays the influence of composers admired by Herzogenberg. However, the work is not always as “Brahmsian” as one might expect. A prominent role is given to church hymns, with the inclusion of folk material and some familiar Christmas melodies.

We’ll hear selections from Parts One and Two – “The Promise” and “The Fulfillment” – and then, after a break, the whole of Part Three, “The Adoration.”

I hope you’ll join me for “German Shepherds,” Herzogenberg’s musical telling of the Nativity story, on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW, DEBUTING TODAY!! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

December 23, 2023
Sweetness and Light Premiere on KWAX Radio

Don’t miss the world premiere broadcast of my new show, “Sweetness and Light,” this morning on KWAX!

Going forward, I’ll be adding a third show to my syndicated output, offering a weekly playlist of British Light Music, ballet, operetta, waltzes, marches, parlor music, and piano miniatures of a kind once familiar from Grandma’s piano bench – in short, undemanding fare calculated to charm and to cheer and to help you forget your worldly woes.

It’s all holiday-oriented this week, so why not give it a whirl. And then be sure to drop back later in the day, when I share selections from Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s oratorio “Die Geburt Christi” (“The Birth of Christ”) on “The Lost Chord.”

I’m dreaming of a light Christmas. Happy holidays to you!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast (the radio station of the University of Oregon), so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: Dangling a carrot, deer ones, for “Sweetness and Light”

December 23, 2023
Classic Christmas TV Specials Music

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll think inside the box, with music from classic Christmas television specials.

“The Snowman” (1982), based on the picture book by Raymond Briggs, is about a boy whose snowman comes to life and whisks him away on a journey to the North Pole. The show became enormously popular in the UK and through occasional showings on U.S. television. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Like the book, the film is wordless, using animation and music to tell its story, with the exception of an enchanting interlude, known as “Walking in the Air,” which employs a boy treble. “Walking in the Air” is easily the best-known music by Howard Blake. Blake turned 85 in October. Happy belated birthday!

The television film “The Homecoming” (1971) stars Patricia Neal and Richard Thomas in a heart-warming story about a rural family Christmas in 1933. Written by Earl Hamner, the film’s success spawned the television series “The Waltons.” Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music. He would return to work on “The Waltons” – though as of “The Homecoming,” he had yet to write the show’s indelible theme.

An adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1954) was the subject of a special episode of the anthology series “Shower of Stars.” Fredric March plays Ebenezer Scrooge, and Basil Rathbone is Jacob Marley’s ghost. But it is Ray Middleton, who appears as both Scrooge’s nephew and the Spirit of Christmas Present, who is given arguably the show’s most memorable tune, “A Very Merry Christmas.” The teleplay and lyrics are by Maxwell Anderson, and the music is by Bernard Herrmann!

Finally, Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer, with “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965). We’ll hear the Vince Guaraldi Trio perform selections from this most beloved of Christmas classics.

For once, the snow has nothing to do with your television reception. I hope you’ll join me for a cookie plate full of classic Christmas specials, on “Picture Perfect,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Also, a reminder that tomorrow morning I’LL BE ADDING A THIRD SHOW to the mix: SWEETNESS AND LIGHT will debut at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST) with a seasonal playlist calculated to charm and to cheer. I hope you’ll be able to join me then.

Stream all three shows, at the times indicated, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

December 22, 2023

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