Nice to see The Alamo actually posted a tribute to Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman), stating that not a day has gone by since the release of “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985 that some tourist hasn’t asked to see the basement.
I don’t know about you, but if I ever face a firing squad, “Tequila” is definitely going to be my last request.
How does one reconcile this gregarious, Ravel-loving myna bird with the world-weary myna of the Warner Bros. cartoons, bowed by Mendelssohn’s ponderous “Hebrides?”
Uproarious set-pieces? Check.
Apocalyptic slapstick? Check.
Outrageous disguises? Check.
Puerile schtick? Check.
Hoary punchlines? Check.
Inappropriate humor? Check.
Over-the-top accents? Mais oui!
Roy and I discuss the most flamboyant of the Inspector Clouseau films, “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” (1976). Former Chief Inspector Dreyfus goes to insane lengths to eliminate his bumbling nemesis, ramping up the violence and destruction and throwing the door open to the broadest of gags.
Some may regard the humor as dated, but it’s still funny as hell. If we’re not laughing, we’re crying or fighting. Personally, I’d rather laugh.
Here’s last night’s conversation on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.
This Friday, Roy’s special guest will be filmmaker Jeffrey Morris, who’s now deep into his “Space: 1999” documentary focusing on the Eagle.
There may be one or two other interviews during the month of August, but in all likelihood Roy and I won’t reunite (on the show, anyway) until September for our jaw-dropping 200th episode.
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer!
In response to the atomic pop-cultural detonation of Barbenheimer, I posted a couple of times over the past week about John Adams’ Oppenheimer opera “Doctor Atomic.”
I remember listening to The Metropolitan Opera broadcast on the radio back in 2005, but I only just watched the stream this week, when it was offered free in the wake of the film’s release.
Now I note that WRTI will be broadcasting one of this past season’s Philadelphia Orchestra performances of Adams’ “Doctor Atomic Symphony.”
The symphony received its debut at the BBC Proms in 2007, originally in four movements, at 45 minutes in length. Adams tightened it up for its American premiere into three movements, running some 25 minutes, presented without break.
I attended one of The Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, which also featured the Sibelius Violin Concerto and the Suite No. 2 from Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe,” with my occasional concert companion, filmmaker H. Paul Moon. Augustin Hadelich was the violin soloist, and Roderick Cox conducted.
You can hear the concert broadcast on WRTI, where I hosted both classical and jazz shifts from 2014 to 2016 (technically I think I’m still on the call list) this afternoon at 1:00 EDT. For more information and interviews with the artists, follow the link.
The opera’s standout aria is “Batter My Heart,” a setting of John Donne’s 14th Holy Sonnet. It’s intriguingly staged here, with Gerald Finley as Oppenheimer.
Adams recalls the music for the final movement of his symphony. The opera explores the stresses and anxieties surrounding preparations for the Trinity test in 1945, with Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” a central figure.
Oppenheimer made his home in Princeton for nearly 20 years, as director of the Institute for Advanced Study.
For more selections inspired by Oppenheimer AND, believe it not, Barbie, scroll through my Facebook posts of the past week!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100027272182187
Then check out H. Paul Moon’s music and other documentaries at zenviolence.com.
Is “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” (1976) the funniest of the Pink Panther movies? It’s certainly the most unhinged. At any rate, it will make for a lighthearted point of discussion tonight on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
With its memorable set-pieces, slow-motion slapstick, ludicrous disguises, over-the-top accents, hoary punchlines, and old-school, telegraphed schtick, it’s a rib-tickling time capsule of a kind of comedy that had its roots in farce and burlesque but seemed to achieve its glorious apotheosis in the films of Blake Edwards, Mel Brooks, and early Woody Allen.
This one also pokes fun at some of the Bond conventions, as long-suffering, now unhinged (former) Chief Inspector Dreyfus seeks revenge on (current) Chief Inspector Clouseau. He does so by metamorphosing into a Bondian supervillain, which seems both absurd and, thanks to Herbert Lom, who gives it his series-best, the most natural thing in the world.
Peter Sellers, of course, is Clouseau. And how I miss breezy Henry Mancini.
Contemporary audiences may find some of the humor a little questionable, but trust me, most of us did back then too. That’s part of what made it so damn funny.
It’s the very thing for a summer evening, like a berries and crème crêpe. I hope you’ll join us for a conversation about Clouseau on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Does your dog bite? The comments section will be full of priceless Steinways when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., at a special day and time, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!
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