The Princeton Symphony Orchestra was kind enough to include a reminder of my recent PSO Soundtracks talk, “Picture Perfect: Music and the Movies,” in their E-newsletter earlier this week. The presentation was given at Princeton Public Library on October 8th. If you missed it and have been hoping to catch the video, it’s been archived here:
https://www.princetonsymphony.org/bravo/programs/soundtracks-talks
The @[100043116381457:2048:Princeton Symphony Orchestra] has posted the film music talk I delivered last week at Princeton Public Library. Videographer Briann Dixon did an amazing job making me look and sound great. I gave a whirlwind history of music in film, interleaved with some of my personal observations and experiences, including some especially affectionate memories of a childhood full of monster movies and “Star Wars.” Follow the link if you care to check it out.
Michael Abels, a Pulitzer Prize winner (for his opera “Omar”) and composer of choice for director Jordan Peele (“Get Out,” “Us,” and “Nope”), will be one of the featured composers on this weekend’s concerts of the PSO, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Abels’ “More Seasons” is a response to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”
Also on the program will be Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony” and Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto,” which should be something else in Richardson’s intimate setting. PSO concertmaster Basia Danilow will be joined by principal cellist Alistair MacRae and pianist Steven Beck. The orchestra’s music director, Rossen Milanov, will conduct. To learn more, visit princetonsymphony.org
My personal thanks to the PSO, Princeton Public Library, and Briann!
Pulling together my thoughts, slides, and sound files for the next Princeton Symphony Orchestra Soundtracks talk, “Picture Perfect: Music and the Movies.” The event will be held in the second floor Newsroom of Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon St., in Princeton, NJ, tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7:00.
I’ll share reflections on, and my affection for, some of my favorite film scores, within the context of broader observations on the evolution of movie music from the silent era to the present. If you have anything to add about Hans Zimmer, a Q&A will follow!
It’s all free, so drop on by and take a load off. Popcorn not included!
The last time I tried to post about this it was taken down and I was threatened with banishment. I understand it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but seriously? In yesterday’s post, I mused over and invited speculation as to why this might have been.
Hopefully Facebook’s new hypervigilant A.I. golem is looking the other way, because I’m about to give it another shot:
If you’re in the area, consider dropping by Princeton Public Library on October 8 at 7 p.m. for my highly-subjective and occasionally even irrefutable observations on the evolution of movie music from the early days of silent film to the 21st century – with plenty of love lavished on some of my favorite, formative scores.
The event is free, so if you don’t like it, you’ll still get your money’s worth. Thanks to the Princeton Symphony Orchestra for cohosting the talk. Hope to see you there, and at one of the PSO’s future concerts!
Has anyone else been having issues with Fa ce book recently? More than usual, I mean?
Have you heard anything about the alg orithm having been tweaked?
The reason I ask is that because within the past week or so, I’ve had several comments re moved. I’m wondering if it’s because they contained question marks, so that perhaps the f ilter confused them with transparent ph ishing schemes. You know, those random introductions from supposedly adoring admirers that attempt to sca m you into friending them. It might also be possible that the system has been tweaked so as to be extra vigilant at heading off rhetoric and vitriol with the el ection season heating up.
Of course, the day-to-day operations of Fa ce book no longer seem to be run by people at all. Some Fa ce book Frankenstein could simply have thrown a lever and unleashed an A. I. automaton, and now it’s raging across the so cial m edia platform de leting posts and ba nning people and lo cking users out of their accounts, seemingly willy-nilly. Another user contacted me recently to let me know she was lo cked out for “un usual ac tivity,” because she attempted to respond to an understandable increase of well-wishers on her birthday.
With the de letion of my comments, I received a boiler plate explanation stating that they had been identified as s pam. When my post (promoting my upcoming talk at Princeton Public Library on October 8 ) was removed, I was notified that it was because it vio lated community st andards. And no, the vio lation had nothing to do with promoting the event. I did share the announcement from another page, but that wasn’t in vio lation of any Fa ce book rule. I can only assume it was something in my characteristically witty commentary that the soulless al gorithm didn’t get (kind of like my old boss).
These de letions were accompanied by ominous warnings that repeat of fenses could result in time-outs or banishment. With all the illiterate garbage and ugly, inflammatory bear-baiting on the pl atform, obviously the guy they want to go after is the one who gets ten likes on his posts about classical music.
I was offered the option to ap peal the post de letion, which of course I did. (No such options were offered for the re moved messages.) Supposedly, the case will be reviewed within a certain number of days, and if it’s found the judgment was in error, the post will be restored. I’m not holding my breath. Everyone knows there are a very limited number of live people working in the boiler room at Fa ce book.
I apologize for the gratuitous number of spaces inserted into potentially sensitive words, my attempt to dodge having even this re moved, as an earlier attempt to explain what was happening in a message thread caused the comment to be de leted.
Naturally, I don’t want to be exiled from Fa ce book. It’s yet another reminder that I shouldn’t be investing so much of myself here, beyond perhaps posting fluff and teasers, and that really I should be shifting my longer-form rants and ruminations to a blogging platform.
I took a screen shot of one of the notices, which I will include in the comments below.
Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (120) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (185) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (100) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (135) Opera (198) Philadelphia Orchestra (88) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (106) Radio (87) Ralph Vaughan Williams (85) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)