Just in case you happened to miss Roy and my musings on “Westworld” (1973), Michael Crichton’s animatronic amusement resort run amok, here it is again for your Saturday morning delectation.
Don’t forget, tomorrow night, Roy will welcome special guest Jimmi Simpson, who plays Will on the current HBO revival of “Westworld.”
“Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” streams on Facebook every Friday and Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT.
Thanks again, Roy, for having me back!
Get set for another Classic Ross Amico double-feature.
First, at 6:00 EDT, we traverse the open seas, with an hour of music from films featuring tall ships – including selections from “Captain Horatio Hornblower” (Robert Farnon), “Botany Bay” (Franz Waxman),” “ Mutiny on the Bounty” (Bronislau Kaper), and “Windjammer” (Morton Gould) – on “Picture Perfect,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Then at 7:00 EDT, so much for wide-open spaces! The intractable frontier closes in on itself, real fast, in Michael Crichton’s “Westworld” (1973). Roy Bjellquist and I discuss this dystopian nightmare of an amusement park gone horribly wrong, which laid the groundwork for today’s HBO hit revival as well as Crichton’s “Jurassic Park.” The conversation will be live-streamed on Facebook at “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/.
The next time you get a computer virus, thank your lucky stars it’s not Yul Brynner with a six-shooter!
It’s a refreshing change of pace to be able to enjoy any live music these days. All the more reason to savor two special events, which will take place at Mercer County Community College’s Black Box Theatre and will be shared today over WWFM The Classical Network.
First, pianist Clipper Erickson will perform works by R. Nathaniel Dett, Beethoven, and Laurie Altman, at 12:00 EDT.
Then Rob Kapilow will present an all-new “What Makes It Great?” playing and deconstructing music by Beethoven, Sondheim, and composers of the Great American Songbook, at 8:00 EDT.
Enjoy a sense of connection, with genuine live performances, presented in real-time. The seating is in your living room, today on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Taste the “cat” and prepare to be keelhauled!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we give in to the impulse to run away to sea.
Though Gregory Peck cuts a dashing figure as “Captain Horatio Hornblower” (1951), the movie itself is a bit episodic, adapted as it was from three of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels. Canadian-born master of British light music Robert Farnon wrote the music, lending another dimension to this nautical adventure.
Alan Ladd and James Mason engage in a battle of wills in “Botany Bay” (1953). Ladd plays a doctor, wrongly convicted of a crime, who is transported to a penal colony in New South Wales on a ship under the harsh command of Mason. In perhaps the film’s most memorable sequence, Mason has one of his charges keelhauled! Franz Waxman wrote the score.
If it all sounds a mite familiar, it’s because the story is by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, who also wrote the book that became the basis for “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1962). The classic film version of “Bounty” dates from 1935, with Clark Gable butting up against Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh. The ‘60s version bears a certain notoriety, mostly for Marlon Brando’s eccentric performance, which turns Fletcher Christian into a fop, and the fact that he essentially directed all his own scenes himself. The film was colossal failure, earning back only $13 million of its $19 million budget. Nonetheless, it managed to inspire Bronislau Kaper to compose one of his most monumental scores.
Interesting fact: the enlarged replica of the 1787 HMS Bounty, constructed specifically for the 1962 film, sank off the coast of North Carolina during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The ship had also been used in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.
Finally, we’ll hear selections from “Windjammer” (1958), the only film shot using the Cinemiracle process. The film documents the round-trip, transatlantic journey of a Norwegian vessel from Oslo to the Caribbean to New York to Portsmouth, NH, and then back home again. Morton Gould wrote the evocative score, which alternates dance rhythms and sea shanties with a recurring melody suggestive of the sweeping romance of the high seas.
Prepare to set sail! It’s tall ships recommissioned, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
It’s wagons west this weekend, on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
Delos Inc. invites you to visit Westworld, where all your fantasies are brought vividly to life. The experience promises to be both invigorating and rejuvenating – that is, until Yul Brynner goes rogue!
Roy Bjellquist and I will discuss Michael Crichton’s 1973 feature film debut, which explores the consequences of corporate recklessness and technology run amok. Of course, Crichton would later revisit the hazards of malfunctioning sci-fi amusements when he came to write “Jurassic Park.”
I hope you’ll join us for this live-stream analysis of “Westworld,” on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT.
Then Roy will ride solo, as he welcomes special guest Jimmi Simpson, who plays Will on the current HBO revival of “Westworld.” At three seasons and counting, “Westworld” in its television iteration has had more freedom to plumb deep into the story’s ethical and philosophical implications.
Simpson has also appeared on the sci-fi anthology series “Black Mirror” and in the most recent incarnation of “The Twilight Zone.” Roy and Jimmi will chat this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT.
Enjoy both “Westworld” live-streams on the Facebook page of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/
Now, draw!
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