• Father’s Day Sports Music on The Lost Chord

    Father’s Day Sports Music on The Lost Chord

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    Happy Father’s Day! This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we pay tribute to Dad, with an hour of music about sports.

    I realize it’s a possibility that not all dads necessarily like sports. However, it’s been my experience that Sunday afternoons and Monday nights have always been off-limits, as far as the family television is concerned. For me personally, that meant that after Abbott and Costello or the Bowery Boys, it was football, golf, or “Wide World of Sports,” and that I never saw “MAS*H” during its first run.

    Be that as it may, it’s Dad’s day, so we’re going to give him what he wants – an hour of rough-and-tumble, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

    We’ll hear “Rugby” by Arthur Honegger, “Half-Time” by Bohuslav Martinu,” “The Yale-Princeton Football Game” by Charles Ives, and highlights from the baseball opera “The Mighty Casey” by William Schuman.

    Combine with a La-Z-Boy and a cold beer, and it’s a recipe for dad contentment. I hope you’ll join me for “Good Sports,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.


  • Meteor Movie Review My Sci-Fi Podcast Appearance

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    In case you missed it (and I know you did), here’s my latest appearance on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci Fi Corner,” in which Roy and I take on “Meteor” (1979).

    I’m toying with the idea of starting a similar live-stream, in which I’d hold informal conversations with guests about music. Does that seem as if it would be of interest to you? It’s either that or “Kung Fu Corner!”

    New episodes of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” stream Fridays and Sundays at 7 p.m. EDT.

    Thanks, Roy, for having me back!


  • Live Guitar Music from Newman & Oltman on WWFM

    Live Guitar Music from Newman & Oltman on WWFM

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    Live music-making is a rare bird in time of COVID. All the more reason to celebrate a recital by the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo today on The Classical Network, on a special Noontime Concert, coming to you live from Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Black Box Theatre, adjacent to the WWFM studios.

    Michael Newman and Laura Oltman will perform music from their new album devoted to works of renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer – including a selection from “The Book of Imaginary Beings,” a piece commissioned by Raritan River Music and written specifically for them. “The Book of Imaginary Beings” is also the name of the album, now available on the MusicMasters label.

    Also on the program will be Brouwer’s “Música Incidental Campesina” and two selections from “Beatlerianas” – “She’s Leaving Home” and “Fool on the Hill.” In addition, the duo will perform music by Enrique Granados, Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Paul Moravec, and Jay Ungar (the popular “Ashokan Farewell”). The concert will be broadcast at 12 p.m. EDT.

    Newman and Oltman, longtime friends of the station, are founders and artistic directors of the Raritan River Music Festival, which last month marked its 31st season (this year, executed totally online). They are also founders and artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes. The duo will celebrate its 30th year as ensemble-in-residence at Mannes College of Music this season.

    Please remember that we are coming up on the end of our fiscal year. If you enjoy the music, please do what you can to renew your membership, become a new member, or make an additional gift before June 30. Our survival, and to what degree we are able to rebuild, depends to large extent on the dedication and generosity of our listener-members.

    I think we can all use a touch of normalcy and a sense of stability. Enjoy the concert, and thank you for your support of WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

    https://wwwfm.secureallegiance.com/wwfm/WebModule/Donate.aspx?P=DEFAULT&PAGETYPE=PLG&CHECK=vOU2bz5JCWmgCDbf53nm9ezWDeZ%2BeA1M&fbclid=IwAR1ovFGqc9n3zFh-lM0Tk14jhcqYu_SIyjedie-LiBKFI2JpJq7hnp5eerc


  • Movie Dads Father’s Day Special on WWFM

    Movie Dads Father’s Day Special on WWFM

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    This week on “Picture Perfect,” we anticipate Father’s Day with an hour of music celebrating movie dads.

    Vito Corleone may not exactly have been a model father, though he did adhere to a particular code of ethics. Besides, what father doesn’t love “The Godfather” (1972)? “The Godfather” was recognized with 11 Academy Award nominations – of which it won three, including Best Picture. However, the awards were not without controversy.

    Of course, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to the ceremony to decline his Oscar, in protest over Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in television and film. Then there was the matter of the score, by Nino Rota. Rota was nominated, but the nomination was withdrawn when it was discovered that he had used one of the themes in a 1958 film called “Fortunella,” which starred Giulietta Masina and Alberto Sordi. In the end, the Academy turned around and gave Rota the award anyway, two years later, for “The Godfather Part II.”

    “Field of Dreams” (1989) is one of those rare films that has the ability to reduce manly men – even those without father issues – to a pool of tears. Phil Alden Robinson’s superior adaptation of W.P. Kinsella’s novel, “Shoeless Joe,” is a male wish-fulfillment fantasy, in which a man finds redemption, and a new understanding of his father, in the enchanted cornfields of America’s heartland. And it’s all brought about courtesy of America’s pastime, baseball. The evocative score is by James Horner, who rides on the shoulders of Aaron Copland. The composer seems particularly smitten with Copland’s “Our Town.”

    William Powell plays Clarence Day, the irascible paterfamilias of an upper class family of redheads, in the comedy “Life with Father” (1947), for which Max Steiner wrote the music.

    And Gregory Peck plays one of his most memorable roles as defense attorney – and model father – Atticus Finch, in “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), based on Harper Lee’s beautiful “coming of age” novel. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Peck won the Academy Award for Best Actor a year later. The score is one of the best-loved of Elmer Bernstein.

    You can try to rank the music, but Father’s Day generally yields a tie. (Yes, it’s a pun. Dads love puns.) Spare a thought for dear old Dad, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.


  • Ian Holm Remembered A Marvelous Actor

    Ian Holm Remembered A Marvelous Actor

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    So sorry to learn of the death of Ian Holm, a marvelous actor, who enlivened any movie he was in, whether it be “Alien,” “Chariots of Fire,” “Greystoke,” or “Henry V.” Some may recognize him from his work in Peter Jackson’s bloated “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

    Apparently, Holm suffered from crippling stage fright. Hard to believe, for an artist of his stature, but even Olivier claimed to struggle against it. The theater’s loss was the movies’ gain.

    Thank you, Sir Ian, and rest your soul.

    https://variety.com/2020/film/global/ian-holm-dead-bilbo-baggins-lord-of-the-rings-1234642549/


    PHOTOS (counterclockwise from top): Holm as Phillippe d’Arnot, teaching Tarzan to shave in “Greystoke” (1984), as Bilbo Baggins, with his Ring of Power in “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), as Napoleon Bonaparte in “Time Bandits” (1981), and as the “goddamned robot” Ash in “Alien” (1979)


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