Francomusikaphilia

I don't know why, but French radio always has better music than English. By "better" of course, I mean, "music which I like more." Whether it's punk rock, country western, folk songs from the eighteenth century, anything - it's just nicer. More interesting melodies, more appealing instrumentation... Huzzah for Radio-Canada.

As a side note, I strongly recommend anyone to avoid eating Campbell's Chunky "Grilled Chicken" soup ... it tastes like tar. Rather, it smells like tar, and if you can get past the smell long enough to put it in your mouth, it tastes like salty petrochemicals. (In case anyone is inetersted, I am having a really creepy case of deja-vu at the moment.) This is a shame because the beef stew and clam chowder is actually relatively good for a meal-in-a-can. Maybe it's some sort of "smoke" flavouring gone awry, but ... eew.

The Snicket Movie (pre-release post II)

Octaveleap's response regarding Thomas Newman and my response to hers put me in mind of a peculiar juxtaposition of movies in the contorted pasta of my brain.

It all started when I found out Jude Law was going to be playing Lemony Snicket. I hadn't given him a second thought before, but then I started trying to associate him with Mr. Snicket so I'd be accustomed to seeing his face ... whenever I saw a photo of him, I'd think "he's playing Lemony Snicket." It gradually started sinking in.

A couple months later, I watched Road to Perdition. It's an awesome movie. It definitely has lots and lots of guns, but it is incredibly good. Anyway, this isn't a RtP post so I'll leave it at that. This was in the midst of one of my Snicket ... er ... "episodes," and just about everything was reminiscent of the Series of Unfortunate Events. The time period, the costumes, the gathering of a secret organization at a Victorian mansion, murder, a schism of sorts ... and this kid:

who looked uncannily like how I pictured Klaus before my brain surrendered to the glory of Helquist. This talented young actor's name is Liam Aiken, and he just so happens to be playing one of the Baudelaires...

A handful of minutes later, Jude Law waltzed onto the screen, looking like this:

Bowler hat ... three-piece suit ... briefcase ... and it only got more severe. He became a character who secretly followed the two protagonists, sneaking around, taking pictures, using whatever means necessary to find out where they were or where they were going - eavesdropping on phone calls, attending funerals, etc. Except this guy was EVIL! He was like ... Lemony's evil twin brother!


Now the score to the Snicket movie is done by Thomas Newman, who also did the score to Road to Perdition. He's a very good composer, and the score was a very good score, but ... it's very distinctive. It stands out in my memory most notably because of its haunting piano theme and the way it recalls the awe I feel whenever watching the film. The spooky, emotive, "welling strings" aspect of his style is perfectly suited to the Snicket books, but will I be able to overcome the triple-whappy of Perdition links? Because, after all, it's all about me.