• Christmas Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Christmas Movie Music on Picture Perfect

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    BACK, BY POPULAR DEMAND!

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a yuletide treat: I hope you’ll join me for an hour of musical stocking stuffers.

    We’ll begin with selections from “Miracle on 34th Street,” from 1947. Maureen O’Hara, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn star. Gwenn won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Kris Kringle. Cyril J. Mockridge’s alternately bustling and sentimental score employs “Jingle Bells” as its Santa motif.

    Then, drawing from the countless adaptations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” we’ll turn to a 1938 version, featuring Reginald Owen as Scrooge. Franz Waxman’s music draws on traditional carols and, when Scrooge undergoes his Christmas morning transformation, a sly riff on Georges Bizet’s “Jeux d’enfants.”

    For those who enjoy a little carnage with their Christmas, we’ll also hear selections from “Home Alone.” The 1990 film, in which diminutive Macaulay Culkin subjects would-be burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern to a battery of cartoon violence, features a candy-coated score by John Williams.

    There are those who consider “Ben-Hur” to be among the greatest film scores of all-time. From Miklós Rózsa’s work on the 1959 Oscar champ, we’ll hear music from the film’s opening Nativity sequence.

    Then, Cary Grant plays an angel who answers the prayers of David Niven, attempting to raise funds for a new cathedral, in “The Bishop’s Wife.” Along the way, Grant also happens to fall for Lauretta Young. Monty Woolley, Elsa Lanchester, and James Gleason add to the whimsy. This charming 1947 romantic fantasy sports a memorable score by Hugo Friedhofer.

    Finally, any sentiment in “The Holly and the Ivy,” from 1952, is hard-earned. Ralph Richardson plays the clueless patriarch of a troubled family, a village parson more concerned with his parishioners than those living under his own roof. When the family reunites for Christmas, longstanding frictions continue to wear, but they are gradually resolved. Malcolm Arnold’s score gives little hint of the film’s inherent drama. However, he does provide some boisterous arrangements of some familiar carols.

    Pour yourself a cup of cocoa and settle in for a cinematic Christmas this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. Yule be glad you did, this Saturday evening, Christmas Day, at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.


  • Santa vs Devil a Festivus Airing of Grievances

    Santa vs Devil a Festivus Airing of Grievances

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    Roy’s intense dislike of “Santa Claus Versus the Devil” (he didn’t even watch the entire movie) threw me a little bit – or maybe it was just the spiked eggnog – so last night’s discussion probably never blossomed quite the way it should have done. The film’s many surreal delights were left to wither on the vine. I never even got around to talking about Krampus, the Christmas demon, and the dark underbelly of Christmas!

    But even if it took all the air out of the room, in terms of not being able to actually delve very deeply into the film – beyond what I was able to get out about the director, the composer, the American importer, and one of the child actors, now doing hard time – it did allow a platform for the airing of grievances, as any Festivus broadcast should.

    If you can’t bear to do your last-minute Christmas wrapping to yet another recording of “The Nutcracker,” put us on in the background. If our combative spirit fails to entertain, you could always just spend Christmas Eve at the local mall.

    https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1789868367889508

    We’ll be back on New Year’s Day, with another “Twilight Zone” double-header, and a conversation about the classic episodes “Walking Distance” (1959, written by Rod Serling, and starring Gig Young and Ron Howard), and “Nick of Time” (1960, written by Richard Matheson, and starring William Shatner and Patricia Breslin). This one is being curated by Roy, so don’t blame me if we begin 2022 in “the middle ground between light and shadow.”

    What’s that signpost, up ahead? It’s Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner! Leave your best Rod Serling impressions in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this January 1 at 7 PM EST.

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

    Stay safe, and Happy New Year!


  • Venezuelan Christmas Traditions & Culture

    Venezuelan Christmas Traditions & Culture

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    As Americans, our concept of Christmas tends to be rather Northern-centric. Even the practice of calling ourselves “Americans” is a bit presumptuous, seeing as there are all these other folks living around the Equator and in lands south – roughly 40 percent of the population of the Eastern Hemisphere – who are also Americans, though not citizens of the United States.

    The people of Venezuela may never know what it is to enjoy a white Christmas, but they have developed their own seasonal traditions to compensate for a lack of “dashing through the snow.” On Christmas Day in the capital city of Caracas, the streets are closed to traffic, fireworks shatter the silence before dawn, and those youngsters who can sleep through anything are awakened by a tug on the toe.

    Children go to bed on Christmas Eve with a string tied to their piggies. One end is dangled out the window to be tugged – gently, one would hope – by passersby, as a reminder that it is time to get up and strap on the skates. For in the city of Caracas, it is customary for anyone who is able-bodied to roller skate to Christmas Mass. If the kids are good, they have received gifts in the night, not from Santa, but from Baby Jesus himself.

    After Mass, everyone goes out for tostados and coffee. The big meal is enjoyed on Christmas Eve (actually the wee hours of Christmas morning), following Midnight Mass, or Misa de Gallo. “Gallo,” if you don’t know, is Spanish for “rooster.” Nobody gets any sleep on Christmas in Venezuela. That’s one aspect of the holiday Americans in both hemispheres pretty much share in common.


    A Venezuelan favorite: “Mi Burrito Sabanero” (“My Little Donkey of the Savannah”)


  • Monkees Riu Riu Chiu Remembering Michael Nesmith

    Monkees Riu Riu Chiu Remembering Michael Nesmith

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    With the passing of Michael Nesmith on December 10th, I can’t believe I only just remembered this this morning. Maybe it’s because of a sudden “Latin” orientation, brought on by last night’s discussion of the Mexican underground classic “Santa Claus Versus the Devil” and this morning’s post about Venezuelan Christmas Eve. At any rate, here The Monkees perform the Spanish carol “Riu Riu Chiu.”


  • Festivus Karolju a Holiday Music Treat

    Festivus Karolju a Holiday Music Treat

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    December 23rd. Happy Festivus! Let the airing of grievances begin.

    Then enjoy this postmodern, pandenominational, mid-winter concoction by Christopher Rouse, called “Karolju.” The title, fabricated by the composer, puts an Old World spin on the word “carol.” The “ju” is merely because, as Rouse states, he happens to like words that end in “u.” The text is totally pidgin, and the musical allusions to Orff, Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, and others only add to the fun.

    To hear the complete piece, click the link and allow the videos to play continuously. (There are eleven movements.) The album also contains Witold Lutoslawski’s “Polish Christmas Carols” and Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Retablo de Navidad.”


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