Classic Ross Amico

Dark Yams & Childhood TV Trauma at Roy’s Sci-Fi

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Ross Amico

October 1, 2022

in Daily Dispatch

5 responses

We got awfully hung up on yams last night in some truly unexpected (some might say disturbing) ways, during our discussion “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973), one of the most traumatizing television experiences of our childhoods. I’ve yet to tally up the results of our informal poll, but it’s possible the malevolent yam people are second only to Karen Black’s Zuni doll from “Trilogy of Terror,” in terms of prepubescent nightmare fuel.

After a sweaty contemplation of the relative thrill of being bound by yams, things promise to be much less perverse next week, when we turn our attention to Tobe Hooper’s “Lifeforce” (1985) – which, after all, is only about naked French vampires from outer space.

All will be laid bare during our conversation, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Sharpen your vampire pick-up lines in the comments section (en français), when we livestream on Facebook, next Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

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Jewish Film Music for the High Holy Days

by

Ross Amico

October 1, 2022

in Daily Dispatch

12 responses

This week on “Picture Perfect,” to coincide with the Jewish High Holy Days, we’ll have music from movies and television series informed by aspects of the Jewish experience.

We’ll begin with “Exodus” (1960), based on the bestselling novel by Leon Uris, about the founding of the State of Israel. The book is said to have been the biggest seller in the United States since “Gone with the Wind.” The film was directed by Otto Preminger. Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint lead an all-star cast. Ernest Gold’s stirring music was recognized with an Academy Award and is probably his best-known achievement.

Barry Levinson’s semi-autobiographical “Avalon” (1990) explores the immigrant experience and, for better or worse, the assimilation of a Jewish family into American culture. Alongside his work on “The Natural,” Randy Newman’s score is probably one of his best-loved.

The balance of the hour will be devoted to music from two acclaimed television scores: one for the NBC miniseries “Holocaust” (1978), written by the esteemed concert composer Morton Gould, and the other, the PBS series “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews” (1984), by Emmy Award-winning composer John Duffy.

I hope you’ll join me for a “new year” sampler of films about the Jewish experience this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Dukas Disney and October Fantasy

by

Ross Amico

October 1, 2022

in Daily Dispatch

6 responses

Classical music lends itself well to fantasy. And fantasy lends itself perfectly to October, the month of Halloween.

Take the case of Paul Dukas, born on this date in 1865. Dukas composed an opera about Bluebeard and his sixth wife, and a so-called dance poem, “La Péri,” about a fatal encounter with a Persian fairy.

But far and away his most famous work is “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” after Goethe, who in turn based it on an ancient tale. It was that old wizard, Walt Disney, who did more for the piece than anyone else.

The music is fantastic in more ways than one. Happy birthday, Paul Dukas!

“La Péri”

His Bluebeard opera, “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”

The world’s most beloved vermin as “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”

https://video.disney.com/watch/sorcerer-s-apprentice-fantasia-4ea9ebc01a74ea59a5867853?fbclid=IwAR3J-BXYDHMoHwTqglCz_NuUjvBSYI4KbHyVsOpJw1bxrkNibLFTAmzI0bQ
Valentin Silvestrov at 85 A Ukrainian Life Uprooted

by

Ross Amico

September 30, 2022

in Daily Dispatch

4 responses

The grand old man of Ukrainian music is 85 today. Born in Kyiv in 1937, Valentin Silvestrov attended the conservatory there from 1958 to 1964. In fact, he lived most of his life in Kyiv. He was there when the shelling started in March. One of nearly seven-and-a-half million refugees who have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, he made a harrowing escape to Germany, by way of Poland. He now lives in Berlin. Whether he will ever see his home again is anyone’s guess. It will not be the Kyiv he remembers.

“Diptych: Testament” (1995), on poetry by Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko, MY TESTAMENT

(“Zapovit” / “Iak umru, to pokhovaite”
“Заповіт” / “Як умру, то поховайте”)

Translated by John Weir

When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes… then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields —
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray…. But till that day
I nothing know of God.

Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants’ blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.

“Prayer for Ukraine” (2014)

Symphony No. 5 (1980-82)

Silvestrov at the piano, remembering the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and related attacks in France, January 7-9, 2015

Trailer for documentary “V. Silvestrov” (2020)
Dont Be Afraid of the Dark Feminist Horror

by

Ross Amico

September 29, 2022

in Daily Dispatch

5 responses

From the time of Adam and Eve, so many of the world’s woes have stemmed from some sort of transgression or disobedience. So in the context of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” (1973), if William Demarest tells you not to open the fireplace, don’t open the fireplace!

You wouldn’t expect any profound subtext in a made-for-TV movie, but there is some pretty palpable feminist anxiety underpinning this tale of Sally, a housewife (“the perfect hostess”), played by Kim Darby, who’s alternately dismissed, neglected, or berated by her ambitious, career-driven husband, played by Jim Hutton. Her only friend tells her, “I don’t care what Women’s Lib tells me, the very mention of a mouse drives me crazy!” Sally’s isolation is made manifest when she’s left alone – in an old dark house, of course.

Sure, the acting is wooden (it doesn’t take much to divine that Demarest is thinking, “I used to work with Preston Sturges!”), the script flat, the set-up pedestrian, and the character motivations preposterous, but there is still something elementally creepy about being stalked by malevolent yams that rasp “Sally, Sally, we want your spirit!”

On the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, we kick off Halloween month a day early, as we discuss the television movie we all watched for the first time as kids, either through our fingers or from behind the couch. The conversation will be sharper than a pocket full of straight razors, and the coffee will be laced with NoDoz. We’ll leave the lights on in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

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