Showing posts with label Blade Runner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blade Runner. Show all posts

January 9, 2022

20,000 vinyl LPs 325: Silent Running & Joan Baez

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vinyl LP front cover 
photo of album cover by Styrous®


Today is the birthday of singer, songwriter, musician, and political activist Joan Baez who was born on January 9, 1941. She has dozens of great albums and songs to use but after mulling them over, I settled on my favorite song by her, Rejoice In the Sun, to use as my tribute to her. The song is not only one of the most beautiful she has sung but one of the most beautiful songs, period.          

I used Rejoice In the Sun for the finale of the Tom White ButohPhoto performance at the Gray Loft Gallery in 2015 (link below).        
 
Baez worked with composer Peter Schickele who orchestrated and arranged three of her albums, Noël (1966), Joan (1967), and Baptism (1968). In 1971, Baez reunited with Schickele to record two tracks, Rejoice In the Sun and Silent Running for the science-fiction film Silent Running
 
The lyrics for Rejoice In the Sun are few but carry a strong message: 
 
Heels of children running wild in the sun
like a forest is your child growing wild in the sun
Doomed in his innocence in the sun.

Gather your children to your side in the sun
tell them all they love will die, tell them why, in the sun
tell them it's not too late for today one by one
tell them to harvest and rejoice --- in the sun.
 
 
The two songs were issued as a single on Decca (32890). In addition to this, another LP was released on Decca (DL 7-9188) and was later reissued by Varèse Sarabande on black (STV-81072) and green (VC-81072) vinyl, this recording.             


vinyl LP, side 1
photo by Styrous®

 
The soundtrack for the film was written by bassoonist and P. D. Q. Bach creator Peter Schickele. Rejoice in the Sun was written by Schickele and Diane Lampert.       
 
 

Silent Running movie poster
 
 
Silent Running is one of the most moving, achingly heartbreaking and poignant environmental films ever made; it is at the top of the list of great Sci-Fi films and it is also one of the best roles Bruce Dern has ever had. It was directed by Douglas Trumbull who also involved in one way or another with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, The Andromeda Strain and The Tree of Life, and directed the movies Silent Running and Brainstorm          
 
 
 
In a nutshell, the story line is of a future in which all plant life on Earth is becoming extinct. As many specimens as possible have been preserved in a series of enormous greenhouse-like geodesic domes, attached to large spaceships, the domes are akin to Noah's Ark
 
 
Edward HicksNoah's Ark - 1846
 
 
Because the domes have been deemed too expensive to operate the crew receives orders to jettison and destroy them and return the freighters to commercial service. After four of the six domes are jettisoned and blown up, Lowell (Bruce Dern) rebels and opts instead to save the plants and animals on his ship. He kills his crew-mates but when another space freighter comes to investigate, Lowell knows his crimes will be discovered and in an effort to save the last forest before the freighter arrives, Lowell jettisons the dome to safety then detonates nuclear charges, destroying his ship and himself. The final scene is of the forest greenhouse drifting into deep space (links to cast and complete plot below).            

 

vinyl LP, side 1 & 2
photos by Styrous®

  
Tracklist:
       
Side 1:
        
A1 - Joan Baez – Rejoice In The Sun, Lyrics By Diane Lampert - 2:10
A2 - Peter Schickele - The Space Fleet - 3:28
A3 - Peter Schickele - Rejoice In The Sun (Instrumental) - 1:58
A4 - Peter Schickele - No Turning Back - 2:50
A5 - Peter Schickele - Driving Crazy - 2:26
A6 - Peter Schickele - Drifting - 2:08
       
Side 2:
       
B1 - Joan Baez - Silent Running, Lyrics By Diane Lampert - 2:01
B2 - Peter Schickele - The Dying Forest - 2:24
B3 - Peter Schickele - Tending To Huey - 2:55
B4 - Peter Schickele - Saturn - 4:09
B5 - Peter Schickele - Getting Ready - 1:45
B6 - Joan Baez - Rejoice In The Sun (Reprise), Lyrics By Diane Lampert - 1:30
       
Companies, etc.
       
    Licensed Through – MCA Records, Inc.
    Manufactured By – Varèse Sarabande Records, Inc.
    Copyright © – Varèse International
    Published By – Leeds Music Corp.
    Remastered At – KM Records Inc.
    Pressed By – KM Records Inc.
       
Credits:
       
    Composed By, Music By, Arranged By, Producer – Peter Schickele
    Engineer [Tape] – Larry Boden
    Executive Producer – Gil Rodin
    Remastered By – Dub Taylor (3)
    Vocals [Sung By] – Joan Baez (tracks: A1,B1,B6)
       
Notes:
       
Previously Released as Decca DL 7-9188

Reissued on green vinyl.

Two other reissue versions were also released within the same year.
One on black vinyl, and another one on green vinyl but with a
different prefix on the catalog # - VC 81072 ( DB id # 3860981 )
       
Barcode and Other Identifiers
       
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout, Variant 1): VC 81072-A △ 23669 ①
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout, Variant 1): VC 81072-B RE-1 △ 23669-X ②
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout, Variant 2): VC81072A RE1 + (stamp) SLM + △167
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout, Variant 2): VC81072B RE2 + (stamp) SLM + △167-X
    Rights Society: ASCAP
 
Peter Schickele Featuring Joan Baez – Silent Running (Original Soundtrack Album)
Label:    Varèse Sarabande – STV-81072
Format:    Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Green Vinyl
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Classical, Folk, World, & Country, Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Classical, Folk
         
Viewfinder links:        
         
The Andromeda Strain                 
Joan Baez         
butohPhoto performance            
Bruce Dern            
Gray Loft Gallery             
Peter Schickele         
Douglas Trumbull                
Tom White         
        
Net links:        
         
Gone With the Twins ~ Review              
Retro Trap ~ Review        
Rotten Tomatoes ~ Review        
Silent Running ~          
          Cast            
          Plot                   
Spirituality & Practice ~ Review        
        
YouTube links:        
        
Joan Baez ~     
        Rejoice in the Sun        
        Silent Running                  
Silent Running Trailer                  
Silent Running Intro                   
Silent Running opening prayer                    
Silent Running Robots Play Poker                   
Silent Running Running Over Huey                   
Silent Running Robotic Surgery                   
Silent Running Through Saturn's Rings                  
Silent Running Killing the Crew                   
Silent Running Burying the Body                    
Silent Running Saving the Forest                    
Silent Running Saying Goodbye                    
Silent Running Final Scene                 
Edgar Wright ~ Silent Running (review)        
The Unapologetic Geek ~ Silent Running (review)                 
        
        
        
         
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Sunday, January 9, 2022       
       
 
 




















September 15, 2021

Ridley Scott articles/mentions

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mentions:     
The Mac @ 30     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
date & photographer unknown 


     
     
     
      
     















June 25, 2019

1,001 LaserDiscs 11: Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut

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Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc front cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®


Today is the anniversary of the release of the spectacular film, Blade Runner, released on June 25, 1982, in 1,290 theaters. That date was chosen by producer Alan Ladd Jr. because his previous highest-grossing films (Star Wars and Alien) had a similar opening date (May 25) in 1977 and 1979, making the 25th of the month his "lucky day".


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc front cover
photo by Styrous®


There have been many versions of the film and the history of them is very confusing (links below) but the Director's Cut without the voice over used in the original version is my favorite. In one story I read actor Harrison Ford objected to the voice over, in another Ridley Scott objected but in either case, the producers thought the audience would not get the story. A battle ensued but the producers won out and it was released with Ford doing the voice over which he has stated he hated.       


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc front cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®


And of course, the score for the film by Vangelis (link below) is stunning! The music ranges from heartrendingly beautiful to disturbingly surreal and eerie to dramatically thundering. It is one of finest electronic scores ever written, a dark but melodic combination of synthesizers that mirror the futuristic film noir envisioned by director Ridley Scott.

The original soundtrack release was delayed for over a decade, until 1994, despite the music being well-received by fans and critically acclaimed—it was nominated in 1983 for a BAFTA and Golden Globe as best original score. The soundtrack is regarded as a historically important piece in the genre of electronic music
    

Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc front cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®
 

Blade Runner is a neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young, it is loosely based on the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on off-world colonies. When a fugitive group of Nexus-6 replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc back cover
photo by Styrous®


Back in the sixties I read the short story by Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which Blade Runner was based on. The book is nothing like the film version. In the book Deckard is not in the slightest bit sympathetic, warm or even human as Ford eventually becomes in the film. The story takes place in San Francisco in the book, in Los Angeles in the film. The story in the book is dismal from the start and remains so to the very end. The film ends with some hope. There are very many other differences (link below).      


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc back cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®


So, the upshot is I loved the film not only better but in a way I have never loved a film; and I love many.                


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc back cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®


Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
LaserDisc back cover detail 
detail photo by Styrous®


This 1991 LaserDisc pressing is on two discs and is a special widescreen edition in CAV standard play format.            



Blade Runner ~ The Director's cut
detail photo by Styrous®
















Viewfinder links:   
       
Harrison Ford          
Vangelis         
   
        
        
Net links:              
        
Plot    
Cast           
Versions of Blade Runner         
Blade Runner Fandom ~ Blade Runner versions         
The Bonus View ~ A History of Blade Runner on Laserdisc      
         
YouTube links:              
        
Blade Runner (1982) Official Trailer         
Blade Runner original version opening (1982)                    
Final scene, "Tears in Rain" Monologue        
What Makes 'Tears in Rain" Special     
Vangelis - Blade Runner Soundtrack (complete)        
Blade Runner - book & movie Difference     
       
         
   
The Blade Runner LaserDisc will be for sale on eBay  
       
      
        
       
"Blade Runner needs no explanation."   
                        ~ Rutger Hauer   

 
       
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, June 25, 2019






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April 6, 2018

1,001 LaserDiscs 1: In the beginning

      
     



 





  

     
     The LaserDisc came on the scene 40 years ago . . . .   


                                       Jaws LaserDisc      
  

I have a collection of LaserDiscs that I will be selling, so, I decided to start a series on the discs I have in my collection.           
          
The LaserDisc (abbreviated as LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978.         
 
Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals, VHS and Betamax videotape, the LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America, largely due to high costs for the players and video titles themselves and the inability to record TV programs.

Optical video recording technology, using a transparent disc, was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 (and patented in 1961 and 1990). The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968. By 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the video disc in 1972.      

The format was first available on the market, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1978, two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR, and four years before the introduction of the CD (which is based on laser disc technology). Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known as simply "DiscoVision") in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to internally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical Videodisc, and Disco-Vision (with a dash), with the first players referring to the format as "Video Long Play". The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws.      

Pioneer Electronics purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed it as both LaserVision (format name) and LaserDisc (brand name) in 1980, with some releases unofficially referring to the medium as "Laser Videodisc". Philips produced the players while MCA produced the discs.


Pioneer LaserDisc player    


The Philips-MCA cooperation was not successful, and discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Dakin and John Winslow) founded Optical Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus).   

In 1984, Sony introduced a LaserDisc format that could store any form of digital data, as a data storage device similar to CD-ROM, with a large capacity 3.28 GiB, comparable to the later DVD-ROM format.   

The standard home video LaserDisc was 30 cm (12 in) in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. Although appearing similar to compact discs or DVDs, LaserDisc used analog video stored in the composite domain (having a video bandwidth approximately equivalent to the 1-inch (25 mm) C-Type VTR format) with analog FM stereo sound and PCM digital audio. The LaserDisc at its most fundamental level was still recorded as a series of pits and lands much like CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-ray Discs are today. However, while the encoding is of a binary nature, the information is encoded as analog pulse-width modulation with a 50% duty cycle, where the information is contained in the lengths and spacing of the pits.


disk storage comparison

  
By the early 2000s, LaserDisc was completely replaced by the DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as neither players nor software were then produced. Players were still exported to North America from Japan until the end of 2001. The format has retained some popularity among American collectors, and to a greater degree in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its life. In Europe, LaserDisc always remained an obscure format.       


     
Net links:         
   
LaserDisc formats   
LaserDisc sizes  
       
    
    
Styrous® ~ Friday, April 6, 2018          



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March 27, 2018

Vangelis articles/mentions

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Aphrodite's Child ~ 666    
     
     
mentions:    
9/30/55 ~ James Dean        
Chrisma ~ Chinese Restaurant     
      
      
      
      
     
      
      
      
Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou         
(aka Vangelis)        
date & photographer unknown





 
 


















October 21, 2015

RoboCop takes a bubble bath










photos by Styrous® 




RoboCop is a 1987 American cyberpunk action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, and Ronny Cox.     

RoboCop was released in American theaters on July 17, 1987. The film was a commercial success and grossed over $8 million in its opening weekend and $53,424,681 during its North American domestic run, making it the 16th most successful movie that year.       

The film generated a franchise that included merchandise (the RoboCop bubble bath was one of them), two sequels, a television series, a remake, two animated TV series, a television mini-series, video games, and a number of comic book adaptations/crossovers. The film was produced for $13 million.   



 
1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
front views (8.5 Fl. oz.)




RoboCop design

Rob Bottin created the RoboCop suit. He had just finished doing the special effects for John Carpenter's The Thing. A budget of up to one million dollars was allotted to the completion of the suit, making it the most expensive item on the set. A total of six suits were made: three intact and three showing damage.       

 
1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
back view (8.5 Fl. oz.)




Cast

S. D. Nemeth was also in the film, Lobster Man from Mars, a spoof of B-movie sci-fi films from the 1950s. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989.
  


 



1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
base view (8.5 Fl. oz.)





Film Score

The soundtrack score for the movie was composed by Basil Poledouris, who used both synthesized and orchestral music as a mirror to the man-versus-machine theme of the movie. The soundtrack initially was released by Varèse Sarabande, and has been reissued and remastered several times since.       

The song Show Me Your Spine by P.T.P. was played during the nightclub scene. P.T.P was a short-lived side project consisting of members of the band Ministry and Skinny Puppy. However, this song was not available in any official form and could only be heard in the film. It was eventually released in 2004 on a compilation album called Side Trax by Ministry.

Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial music group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1982. The group is widely considered to be one of the founders of the electro-industrial genre.    

Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a new wave synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the mid-1980s.  






1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
directions




RoboCop was written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. Neumeier stated that he first got the idea of RoboCop when he walked with a friend past a poster for Blade Runner. He asked his friend what the film was about and his friend replied, "It's about a cop hunting robots". For him, this sparked the idea about a robot cop. Allegedly, while the two were attempting to pitch the screenplay to Hollywood executives, they were accidentally stranded at an airplane terminal with a high-ranking movie executive for several hours. Here, they were able to speak to him about the project, and thus began the series of events which eventually gave rise to RoboCop the movie.



1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
base view (8.5 Fl. oz.)




 Oh, that's right. The RoboCop Bubble Bath was produced in Gardena, California, in 1990 and distributed by Cosway Company, Inc.  From RetroThing (see link below for more info):

"But bubbles and bubble bath? An allegorical fantasy about the triumph of human spirit against encroaching technology in a world that had lost its soul... immortalized by bubbles. The bubble bath is just that. Pry off Robo's head and wash behind your ears. "RoboCop The Series Bubble Buddies" includes scented bubbles (long since evaporated), a bubble wand built into the cap of the bottle, and a "removable pocket pal". That's right. You can pull Robo off (complete with his flamethrower arm) the top of the bottle and stuff it in your pocket. Fun. He's your pal."  
As I've never opened by bottle of bubble bath, I didn't know about the wand nor the "removable Pocket pal." Thanks for this info, Retro.    


1990 RoboCop Bubble Bath in Specialty Bottle
base view detail (8.5 Fl. oz.)




Links to RoboCop topics on the Net:     
              
Sony Pictures RoboCop Official website    
More info on RoboCop on RetroThing      
    
    
RoboCop trailer on YouTube         
Ministry ~ Show Me Your Spine on YouTube              
     
      
      
The RoboCop bubble bath is for sale on eBay                         




 Styrous® ~ Wednesday, October 21, 2015
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