They remade that terrible erotic vampire movie starring Alyssa Milano. God knows why. The only reason anyone watches the original is because Alyssa Milano was in an erotic vampire movie. She’s not in this one, but the thing is, the remake isn’t all that bad, actually. I mean it isn’t good or anything, but unlike the original, the filmmakers here know how to tell a coherent story.
You can read my full thoughts here.
I respect women. I believe women. I think women should be cherished for their intelligence, wit, kindness, for their humanity, for all the wonderful things that make them women.
I’m also a big, dumb, man. A cis-gendered, straight man at that. I have a full-blooded sexual appetite. I find women attractive.
In my younger years, I was sometimes known to watch movies just to see beautiful, famous women in various states of undress. Oh, who am I kidding I’m still sometimes known to do the same.
I say this as a way to introduce my review of Embrace of the Vampire, a very dumb mid-1990s movie in which Alyssa Milano gets nekkid. This was just a few years after her turn in Who’s the Boss and she was clearly trying to shed that clean-cut teenage image. I was in college at the time and me and my pals rented the film because…well, you can probably guess.
I’m a little embarrassed by the review now. It was very much written with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. I was trying to be funny. I’m not sure how well I succeeded. I debated whether or not I should even turn the review in at the time, but I couldn’t figure another angle on the movie. It is very much remembered now because Alyssa Milano got naked. I can’t imagine anyone would know it still existed if it weren’t for that fact.
Anyway, here’s the review, please take it as it was meant to be read – as a lark, a dumb joke, an acknowledgment of my own big, dumb maleness.
Pink Floyd
The Transition Period, 1968
(Tarantura TCDPF-3-1-3)
‘The Committee’ Film Soundtrack. Recorded: Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London, Early 1968.
1-1 Instrumental #01
1-2 (Backwards Introduction)
1-3 (Film Scene)
1-4 Instrumental #03
1-5 (Film Scene)
1-6 (Film Scene)
1-7 Instrumental #03
1-8 (Film Scene)
1-9 The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown – ‘Nightmare’
1-10 (Film Scene)
1-11 Instrumental #04
1-12 Instrumental #05
1-13 Instrumental #06
1-14 Instrumental #07
1-15 (Film Scene)
1-16 Instrumental #08
1-17 (Keep Smiling People)
1-18 (Film Scene)
1-19 Instrumental #09
1-20 Instrumental #10
1-21 (Backwards Introduction – Reversed)
Bonus
1-22 Paul Jones, The Committee
1968 – The Transitional Period
Bouton Rouge, ORTF 2 TV Studios, Paris, France. Recorded: Tuesday 20 February 1968.
2-1 Astronomy Domine
2-2 Flaming
First European International Pop Festival, Piper Club, Rome, Italy. Recorded: Monday 6 May 1968.
2-3 Astronomy Domine
2-4 Interview With Roger Waters
2-5 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
2-6 Interstellar Overdrive
Top Gear, BBC Studios, 201 Piccadilly, London. Recorded: Tuesday 25 June 1968.
2-7 The Murderotic Woman Or Careful With That Axe Eugene
2-8 The Massed Gadgets Of Hercules
2-9 Let There Be More Light
2-10 Julia Dream
2-11 Interview With Roger Waters
Omnibus: All My Loving, BBC 1 TV, The Tabernacle, London. Recording Date Unknown, First Broadcast: Sunday 3 November 1968.
2-12 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Tous En Forme, ORTF 2 TV Show, Paris, France. Recorded: Thursday 31 October 1968.
2-13 Let There Be More Light
2-14 Flaming
Top Gear, BBC Maida Vale Studio 4, London. Recorded: Monday 2 December 1968.
2-15 Point Me To The Sky
2-16 Baby Blue Shuffle In D Minor
2-17 The Embryo
2-18 Interstellar Overdrive
Margiethal-Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, Holland. Saturday 28 December 1968.
3-1 Astronomy Domine
3-2 Careful With That Axe Eugene
3-3 Interstellar Overdrive
3-4 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
3-5 A Saucerful Of Secrets
The Transitional Period-1968 era on Tarantura collects documents in an attractive box all of the most important tapes from the year when Pink Floyd underwent a tremendous amount of change. When the year began the band were actually a five piece, having recruited David Gilmour to play guitar to aid an ailing Syd Barrett. They played five or six gigs together before Waters and the others decided it would be best to carry on as a four piece without Syd and stopped picking him up for gigs. They were dropped by their management Blackhill Agency, who did continue to represent Barrett and even tried to persuade Wright to leave Pink Floyd and join Barrett. The band searched for a creative statement that would differentiate themselves from the first album and establish them as an important artistic power. The very first project they did as a four piece is the soundtrack for the movie The Committee. This film is beautifully shot in black and white and starts Paul Jones of Manfred Mann. The subject matter of the movie is a philosophic meditation upon oneís conformity with the group and the expectations of living according to oneís culture. It was supposed to be released to the theaters in May, 1968 but for reasons unknown was pulled and, except for rare showings, was not given general release until it was issued on commercial DVD in September, 2005 causing much celebration. The soundtrack itself has never been released and the only way to hear the music is to listen to the entire film which is what Tarantura does. It will be jarring for most, in listening to the first disc, to hear the long dialogue sections between the music. It sounds like Tarantura ripped the entire soundtrack from the DVD so it is in very good mono.
Most of the music Pink Floyd composed is as much soundtrack movie is, composed of short snippets of music meant to underscore the narrative onscreen. The first instrumental is a short, backwards discordant theme before the first dialogue, between the unnamed protagonist and the driver. ìInstrumental #2î is a minute long, bouncy pop number. The ìinstrumental #3î is a psychedelic, organ driven number which underscores the random discussions of the people at the committee retreat. ìInstrumental #4î is two minutes long and is played under the discussion between the protagonist and the committee chairman where the former discusses why he cut off and reattached the driverís head. The music can be considered ìexperimentalî with various noises on the guitar which resemble parts of ìA Saucerful Of Secrets.î ìInstrumental #5î is a tense organ theme lasting about ninety seconds. ìInstrumental #6î is a two minute long David Gilmour exercise, picking on creepy sounding notes over a Roger Waters staccato rhythm. ìInstrumental #7î is a thirty second long, slow Hammond organ clip. ìInstrumental #8,î given the title ìKeep Smiling People,î is two and a half minutes long and is the most recognizable piece of music on the soundtrack since it is the earliest incarnation of ìCareful With That Axe, Eugene.î It already features Wrightís ìEgyptianî organ and Watersí familiar bass theme. It would be performed on stage as ìKeep Smiling Peopleî and recorded on the BBC as ìThe Murderotic Womanî before being released on the B-side to ìPoint Me To The Skyî and on the LP Relics. The most famous form however will be released the following year, the live version on Ummagumma. ìInstrumental #9î is an upbeat piece driven by Gilmour on guitar. The soundtrack ends with backwards effects and Paul Jones singing dumb song called ìThe Committeeî which summarized what weíve learned in the movie (ì Laws by committee / wars by committee / is the most effective way.î)
The second disc contains six radio and television appearances between February and December, 1968 revealing the amount of promotion they were doing during this time. The first two tracks on this disc, ìAstronomy Domineî and ìFlaming,î come from the ìBouton Rougeî television broadcast. This is a mono recording straight from the television soundtrack, recorded on February 20 and broadcast on February 24. This was unearthed several years ago and is an important find. A third track, ìSet The Controls For The Heart Of The Sunî also exists but Tarantura didnít include it in this collection. The second part of this disc contains the professionally recorded First European International Pop Festival in Rome on May 6. This is excellent stereo soundboard quality and this version is sourced from a VPRO radio broadcast in Holland except for ìInterstellar Overdrive,î which comes from a broadcast of the set from ARD TV in West Germany. Most sources state this event occurred at the Piper Club in Rome, but others claim it was at the Palazzo dello Sport. The second track is two minute long interview with Roger Waters, translated into Dutch, where he says, ìI would say that Rome is an absurd place to organize a pop festival you know. If it would’ve been me I would never have picked Rome you know. Ah… Anyway you know it’s not you know, it’s not a sort of pop-pop festival, if you see what I mean you know. If I was organizing a pop festival in England and wanted to make money and draw big crowds you know, I’d have on ah… well all the people have sold alot of records in England this you know is Engelbert Humperdink and old people like that you know, and those are the people who should really be playing in a pop festival. If the cat wants to fill the place, now if he doesn’t. If he wants to catered to a minority audience then, well I’m certainly in Rome, this evenings a lot of groups anyway where I don’t know about the Italian groups or their association, but anyway the groups in the first half, really a minority, well The Move possibly not, but The Nice and us are certainly a minority appeal you know, and we should be playing in much smaller clubs where there aren’t these bloody television lights shining you know. We couldn’t use our lightshow at all, it was obvious as soon as we arrived. We decided not to use it because we were gonna have a real hassle within.î
The performance of ìInterstellar Overdriveî is unique, starting with drumming and Gilmour making avian clicking noises on the guitar before mutating into a freeform jam. This track alone has appeared on older releases including Stranger Than Fiction (VFM 430318) and Fountains Of Roma (Black Panther BPCD 033), which claims to be the complete show but actually has tracks from shows in 1967. This is followed by an appearance on John Peelís ìTop Gear.î This was recorded on June 25 and first broadcast on radio August 11 and is right before their famous Hyde Park concert on June 29th. This contains four tracks. Two are from the new album, the new track ìThe Murderotic Womanî aka ìCareful With That Axe, Eugene,î and the B-side of the latest single ìIt Would Be So Nice,î a Roger Waters song ìJulia Dream.î The single was not played since the band hated it so much, but the B-side is pleasant and catchy tune, and Peel sounds very enthusiastic for their set. The sound quality is a very good to excellent mono tape probably from the radio. Of all the material in this box set this has been the most frequently released in the past. The Embryo (The Swinginí Pig TSP-CD-020) has ìLet There Be More Light,î ìMurderotic Womanî and ìJulia ìDream.î Loose Connection (Double DTD 007 ) has ìLet There Be More Lightî and ìMurderotic Woman.î Tracks from this session can also be found on Phenomena (Manic Depression CD 013/14), Cymbaline (Alegra CD 9014), From Underground To Moon (Digital Phono Records Digit 3101), My Uncle Is Sick Because The Highway Is Green (Oil Well) has ìJulia Dream,î Rainbows, Clouds And The Moon (Alien Records ALIEN 010) has ìLet There Be More Light,î Re-Actor (Big Music BIG 097), Transcendental Medication (Turtle Records TR-223), Ultra Rare Trax Vol. 1 (The Genuine Pig TGP-CD-114), and Ultra Rare Trax Vol. 3 (The Genuine Pig TGP-CD-116).
The following interview with Roger Waters conducted by Brian Matthew was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 1 ìStory Of POPî in 1994 and is in excellent stereo quality. The following track ìSet The Controls For The Heart Of The Sunî comes from a television program ìAll My Loving.î The recording date is unknown but was first broadcast on November 3 and the Floyd part was rebroadcast on BBC TV ìSounds Of The Sixtiesî in 1991. This show is a ìfilm about pop musicî according to director Tony Palmer, and featured the Beatles, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. Floydís set is filmed in a church and again is in excellent quality, although it is much preferable to have this on DVD to see the color visuals.
The following two tracks are from the second appearance on French television to be included in this Tarantura box set. This is from the ìTous En Formeî television show, recorded live at LíAntenne de Chapiteau du Kremlin-BicÍtre, Paris. The set is part of a festival that also featured Yes and the Moody Blues, and occurs in a circus tent (de chapiteau) in the square and metro station in Parish (Kremlin-BicÍtre). The actual date of filming is unclear. Tarantura list the traditional date of October 31st, which agrees with Povey, but Vernon Fitch claims this show was on September 7th. The show was first broadcast on November 26th. ìLet There Be More Lightî sounds much more raw and aggressive than the ìTop Gearî version from the summer, and ìFlamingî lacks Roger Watersí slide whistle introduction. The sound quality of these two tracks is an excellent stereo, some of the best recordings in this set. The final four tracks come from the second appearance on John Peelís ìTop Gearî in 1968. This was taped on December 2nd to coincide with their latest single, and what would be their last until 1979ís ìAnother Brick In The Wall Part 2,î ìPoint Me To The Sky.î John Peel introduces ìBaby Blue Shuffle In D Majorî as ìa real departure, an acoustic guitar duet.î This song is a real rarity and might be an early version of ìGrantchester Meadowsî from Ummagumma, but at a faster tempo. ìThe Embryoî is a three and a half minute, acoustic guitar lead version of the well known and controversial stage piece. This is one of Gilmourís finest creations and even this early version displays some of the song’s beauty. ìInterstellar Overdriveî lasts for more than eight minutes and is a fantastic version. The sound quality of these four tracks is in mono and is much better than the summer BBC session. Silver releases of this material are scarce but The Embryo (The Swinginí Pig TSP-CD-020) has ìPoint Me To The Sky.î
The final disc contains Pink Floydís final live appearance of the year, the Flight To Lowlands Paradise II on December 28th at Jaarbeurs-Margriethal, Utrecht, Netherlands. Pink Floyd appeared at this show with The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Eire Apparent, The Pretty Things and The McKebba Medelssohn Main Line. This tape has been circulating for a while in a second-generation copy from the cassette but the master surfaced a couple years ago which contains five minutes of tune ups before the first song ìAstronomy Domine.î A fan produced roio called Ode To Syd Barrett exists but this is the first silver release of the tape. Although Tarantura uses the master cassette, they omit the five-minute introduction and the tape begins right when the first song starts. This is the most complete audience recording from this year and is musically complete. The sound quality is poor to fair but improves as the show progresses. Watersí introductions are faint and the audience sounds indifferent to the band. It is valuable for having such an early version of ìCareful With That Axe, Eugeneî which sounds much more compact in this environment. ìInterstellar Overdriveî has Wright playing fascinating keyboard lines and the set closer ìA Saucerful Of Secretsî sounds magnificent. The Transitional Period is packaged in a box with each individual disc in a thick cardboard sleeve with paper insert with track listing and the title stamped on the cover, replicating the old vinyl releases. The label also include mini reproductions of two magazine articles with reviews of The Committee which are interesting although contain no Floyd content. This is limited to one hundred numbered copies and is already almost sold out. This is a fun set to listen to covering an important period in Pink Floydís early career and is worth having.
Pink Floyd
Old Interviews from various cassette sources.
The interviews were seperated into tracks in case someone wanted to skip around, or revisit
a certain section later without leaning on the fast-forward button for 10 minutes to do it.
They are just for convenience, not official dividers.
Track 1: First half of a Nick Mason interview about the 1981 Wall concerts and his
“Fictitious Sports” album. Tape is dated 30 May 1981.
Track 2: Second half of the above Mason interview (the songs played on the show were
cut out on this copy).
Track 3: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Rick Wright, segment 1.
Track 4: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Rick Wright, segment 2.
Track 5: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Rick Wright, segment 3.
Track 6: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Rick Wright, segment 4.
Track 7: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Roger Waters, segment 1.
Track 8: “Rockspeak” 1974 interview with Roger Waters, segment 2.
Track 9: September 1967 Roger Waters interview, when “Piper” was in stores.
My family and I have been watching the new series of Doctor Who every Friday night for many years now. We are currently at the beginning of Peter Capaldi’s era as The Doctor and this is at least our fourth round through the entire thing.
Watching the series over and over and over again gives me a new perspective on each episode every time I watch them. My love for the best episodes deepen, and my irritation at stories I didn’t like the first time around tend to flatten. And I’m constantly noticing things I didn’t notice before.
So it is interesting to read this review of Series Seven all these years later (I originally wrote it in 2013). I apparently wasn’t so keen on it back then (at least not the second half). I’ve come ’round to Clara Oswald a great deal since then and find most of the episodes to be quite good. Strangely, I didn’t mention Amy and Rory’s final episode in the review (other than noting I was sad to see them go) and it is now one of my least favorite episodes of their tenure as companions.
Anyway, you can read my thoughts here.
I’m back on the linking to all my old Cinema Sentries reviews beat. I’ve updated a bunch of my old Pick of the Weeks. Since they are about old Blu-ray releases I’ve decided not to do a new post for each of them, but you can find links to the articles on my My Writings Page.
Doctor Who was cancelled in 1986. It wouldn’t fully return as a regular series until 2005. During that long hiatus, there were still plenty of fans and the official website was quite popular. To celebrate the series‘ 40th anniversary they created six 15-minute webisodes called Scream of the Shalka. It is pretty good, actually. You can read my full review here.
Pink Floyd
German Trading Tape of Outtakes
This tape was floating around in West German trading circles in the early 1980’s. It consists of three tracks:
Interstellar Overdrive (listed as an Ummagumma Outtake)
One Of These Days (alternate take one)
One Of These Days (alternate take two)
The OOTD material is shocking and weird! This tape was brought over to the kind folks at Yeeshkul!, who were only able to identify the first track. It’s not an outtake from Ummagumma at all, it’s from the BBC from December 1968. The other two tracks remain a subject of speculation. That’s all the information I have.
This material is in its best-so-far quality and is presented for your amusement, though not necessarily for your enjoyment. That part is up to you.
Nothing here is officially released, and your comments are welcome.
Enjoy!
A DoinkerTape
Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vol. 11: Lookin’ For a New Friend
Happy new year, fellow Dylan cover fans! Volume 9 of this series featured songs that hadn’t been covered in the first eight sets. To kick off the second season of NSD, this one features artists who have not previously appeared in this series. One special note: track 5, “I Thew it All Away” performed by Paul Kelly, comes from a KCRW special called “Oh Merci!”, hosted by John Wesley Harding, on Dylan’s birthday in 1993. My friend Bob taped about 30 minutes of it, from which I’ve culled this track–but if anyone has the full show, please share it!
And while I’m making requests, here’s another, for Randall (in memory of his friend Mike): can someone send me a lossless version of Bruce Springsteen’s performance of “Forever Young” at the John Hammond tribute show? Randall gave me an MP3 version, and it’s beautifully heartfelt; I’d love to include a lossless version in a later volume of this series.
That’s it for now. Please keep the suggestions and files coming! As always, thanks to the tapers, the original uploaders, the folks who’ve sent me recordings, the fine artists who’ve created cover artwork, and especially the performers and composer. Due to the many different sources, I am not including lineages. I have done nothing to the original files but normalize the levels and fade in and out on each track (using Cool Edit). Enjoy!
01 Highway 61 Revisited – The Long Ryders (May 11, 1985, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA)
02 Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (Mar 19, 2006, KEXP, Seattle, WA)
03 I’ll Keep it With Mine – Marianne Faithfull (Jun 30, 1999, Modernes, Bremen, Germany)
04 Girl From the North Country – Pete Townshend (Aug 15, 1998, Max Yasgur’s Farm, Bethel, NY)
05 I Threw it All Away – Paul Kelly (May 24, 1993, Oh Merci! special, KCRW, Santa Monica, CA)
06 You’re a Big Girl Now – Todd Snider (Sep 17, 2006, Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH)
07 You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go – Shawn Colvin (Nov 29, 2006, Union Chapel, London)
08 Don’t Think Twice – Steve Young (Jun 14, 1991, Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA)
09 Sweetheart Like You – Guy Davis (Nov 5, 2006, Lage Vuursche, Furs, Netherlands)
10 Queen Jane Approximately – Henry Kaiser (Aug 27, 1994, Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan)
11 Oh Sister – Black Crowes (2-15-97, Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands )
12 The Man in Me – My Morning Jacket (Jun 18, 2004, Brown-Forman Ampitheatre, Louisville, KY)
13 Man of Peace – Holmes Brothers (Apr 12, 2001, Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, ON)
14 I Shall Be Released – Kevn Kinney with Edwin McCain
15 Forever Young – Southside Johnny and Little Steven (Nov 21, 1993, WXRK-FM Studios, New York, NY)
16 Blowin’ in the Wind – Carlos Santana and Friends w/Steve Winwood (Jul 15, 2004, Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland)
The Who
May 18 2022
at TD Garden, Boston, MA, USA
Tour: The Who Hits Back!
No source info given.
With Orchestra
Overture
1921
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Pinball Wizard
We’re Not Gonna Take It
Who Are You
Eminence Front
Ball and Chain
Join Together
Band Only
The Seeker
You Better You Bet
Relay
Won’t Get Fooled Again
With Orchestra
Behind Blue Eyes
The Real Me
I’m One
5:15
The Rock
Love, Reign O’er Me
Baba O’Riley
Encore:
Happy Birthday to You
(Mildred J. Hill & Patty Hill cover) (Roger sang with audience for Pete’s Birthday on the 19th.)
The Cure
2023-05-23
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles, CA
SOURCE:
SP-CMC-8 (w/Mods) > Sony PCM-A10 > Sandisk Mini-SD Card (32gb – Class 10)
TRANSFER:
.WAV (24 Bit) > Adobe Audition 2023 CC (normalize/amplify/tracking) > Trader’s Little Helper > FLAC (Level 6)
SETLIST:
— ENCORE #1 —
— ENCORE #2 —
NOTES:
What’s a better encore to Cruel World (err, more like an encore to Cruel World’s own encore, so an encore to an encore?) than seeing The Cure a couple days later? Yeah I can’t think of anything better either, so here we are! I, like everyone else probably, failed to get tickets when they first went on sale (even with THREE Hollywood Bowl dates, I was completely shut out – I smell something fishy there), so I had to be patient and keep checking back on Ticketmaster every so often. I was about to give up until I read about some Firefox extension that would help refresh TM’s page every few seconds for whatever event date you wanted, so I set it to run on all three days, and the first and only date that had a ticket pop up that I was able to purchase was for Tuesday. Works for me.
This was my third time seeing the Cure, and the first time since their Pasadena Daydream performance back in 2019. My seat was rather decent, in section G2, though it became apparent I was in the senior citizen section, as no one in that section wanted to stand up. And when I did stand up, for “Pictures of You”, one of my favorite songs, I was “heckled” to sit down near the end. Then a couple songs later, duing “Lovesong”, when multiple people near me stood up, I stood up again, and then sat back down for a slower song and immediately heard the “Thanks, I can see again asshole!”. I flipped the bird and then they barked back. Gosh, I really do hope that by standing, I ruined their first concert ever. Fucking douchebags. Sorry, maybe my concert etiquette is far different than others, given I do a lot of festivals, but if you want to stand, then fucking stand. Who cares? Now if we’re discussing these idiots talking during the show? Well that’s a whole other issue. But standing? Pff, gimme a fucking break. Here’s a big FUCK YOU to all the crybabies in G2. I’d almost not want to release this recording, just to spite those dickheads behind me.
Anyway, back to the show. I thought it sounded great. I was so glad they chose the Hollywood Bowl rather Staples (or Crypto or whatever the fuck it’s called now) or Kia Forum. I generally like the Bowl and its sound, so no complaints there. It was pretty cool that they had some sounds of thunder and rain coming through the PA before they took the stage. They eventually started flashing the stage lights like it was lightning, and for a split second I had terrible flashbacks to Cruel World on Saturday night, thinking actual lightning was in the area and this show was going to get cancelled. But no, it was just Robert fucking with us all.
They played a lot of the hits, skipped a lot of the hits, and played some new stuff, including the debut of “Another Happy Birthday”. I actually think the new song “And Nothing is Forever” is the best sounding song out of all the new stuff, by a mile. I was blown away by that one. Robert said they all had a “bug” and that he was probably patient zero. That might explain why everyone but Robert looked fucking bored out of their minds on stage. Roger O’Donnell looked like he was auditioning for a new Weekend At Bernie’s. I swear, he makes Gilian Gilbert of New Order look like a raving lunatic on stage in comparison. Here’s hoping it was just that “bug”…
themidnightcafe.org 