[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Presumed Innocent (Apple TV Series)
Very well acted series, which does take some liberties compared to the source novel (which I haven’t read, but read about), as well as the movie adaptation by Alan J. Pakula (which I like).

But in the end, it’s not nearly as interesting as anyone involved seems to think it should be.

The TV series has some good stuff, but even though they had 8 episodes as opposed to two hours, the only characters that were actually fleshed out more were Nico Della Guardia and especially Tommy Molto (excellent: Peter Sarsgaard). And while Jake Gyllenhaal is an excellent actor, the way Rusty Sabich was written felt unhinged… I could believe that he’s a murderer, but it was hard to believe that he was the DA of Chicago!

The ending — changed from the novel and the Pakula film — was totally ridiculous, previous scenes from episodes earlier now make no sense. WTF?
And while the series was competently scored, the original film had an elegant score by John Williams, so it’s not even a close match there.
Skip the series and watch the movie.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Barbie wasn’t subversive in any way but straight fulfillment of marketing runbook with the usual Zeitgeist nodds.

I beg to differ.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

FREE GUY had its moments, but unfortunately only a few of them, it wasn’t nearly as fun and subversive as BARBIE.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I thought BARBIE was actually better than I thought it would be when I eventually saw it, quite a lot of fun. I didn’t think it would be actually all that good, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit, with the classic “battle of the sexes” played out in a sharper and more astute way than I expected.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, definitely. If I had known about MusicBee just a BIT earlier, I would have tried that instead, and left my long iTunes allegiance by the door.

You can try out MusicBee “parallel” to your iTunes library, just point it to the same music folder (it can be configured to not change the files, so it won’t interfere with iTunes) to see if you like it. It’s more complex and can do way more things than iTunes, so it may help to try it out some time and dive into it, before switching completely. It can be configured in many ways (including even to act and look a lot like iTunes).

But it’s too much work. I have too much music. So for now, I take the big job manually every time I need to wipe my computer clean, or buy a new one.

In the end, it’s whatever works for you. I can only talk from my experience: over the years, I have built a considerable digital music library, and they are all consistently tagged, I want to preserve that and not ever do this over again. For me, cross platform and cross device compatibility (since I don’t even play music on or from my computer) were always essential, which is why my music library, tags, playlists, etc. all exist independently of the software or devices I use to access it.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Digital files on a harddrive IS old fashion and physical media is stone age 😉

That’s quite true really.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

OK, that’s just semantics. 🙂
As far as I know “iTunes” is discontinued on Mac and replaced by several follow up apps (including Apple Music), which have split some but not all of the functionality of iTunes. On Windows, iTunes is still supported.

In iTunes, if you add cover art to an album, it’s inserted into the files (on Windows at least). I didn’t know that it works differently on a Mac.

At least on Windows, MusicBee is a full (and actively developed and maintained) app that could fully replace iTunes if one ever wants to make the “jump”. (I use it parallel.) I don’t think there’s anything iTunes can MusicBee can’t, but MusicBee can do lots of things iTunes can’t. It also handles both ALAC and FLAC. 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Interesting that you still refer to “iTunes”. Is it still called that on Windows and is it still developed.

Actually yes. I know it’s discontinued in MacOS, but iTunes is still maintained (I wouldn’t say “developed”, but it still gets updates) on Windows. You can also use iTunes to buy music from Apple, but I never did that, as it was never lossless. (Not sure if that’s changed now.)
I also use iTunes because, despite all its flaws, it does some things very well. I started my digital music collection with iTunes in 2013, when I started to transfer all my CDs to hard drive, and even though I don’t use iTunes to rip or play music anymore, it’s still a central point for a number of reasons for my “maintenance”. However, I know iTunes is basically a “dead end” for Apple at this point, but I also have MusicBee already in the lineup, which can do everything iTunes can on a local library and then some, so I could “leave” iTunes any time and just continue.

And a warning: I don’t know about the Windows version but the macOS one is also the player for the streaming service Apple Music. Even if you don’t have that it offers some re-imports from there. It gets everything wrong and does not recognize things correctly. I thought I could re-import some cover. But not only the cover were wrong, it even change the titles at times. Avoid clicking on that at all costs if the Windows version has that…

The Apple Music store is still part of iTunes on Windows, though it doesn’t “mix and mingle” as much as Apple Music does. I do have the U2 album “Songs of Innocence”, which is the only album in my collection in 256bit AAC, as it was a giveaway from iTunes, so I got that.

If they are not in the files itself but just added to the album they got lost.

That’s why all my metadata — including cover art — is in the files. Every single file has cover art, I don’t have any folder images.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

You must have pretty fast hardware if all of that is done in the time of a walk!

Or I do long walks. 🙂

Not sure, I guess it takes about an hour or so in my setup to re-create the iTunes library from scratch, but it’s a guess, I never timed it. iTunes does that in the background, I don’t have to “do” anything, which may be why I’m unsure about how long it actually takes.

Yeah, true… 12 does not pick the color of the album; I forgot that 11 once did. Nice effect.

But 12 shows the tracks in one or two columns, depending on how the GUI is set on the screen, I’m pretty sure. But yeah, I’ve only ever used iTunes as a tool, not a player, so could be that 11 is superior in some ways, I don’t know… 12 has been the version for so long by now.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I use iTunes 12 in the latest version and am not quite sure what or if anything was better in 11?

But yeah, that seems quite cumbersome. I mean, great that you have a backup! That’s the most important thing! Always keep a backup or two.

I try to keep things simple and easy (because I’m lazy and I know things can — and sometimes will — go wrong).

I use iTunes to curate my ALAC files, but it is that collection (including all corrected track names, covers, etc.) is what is backed up, so if I ever need to re-install iTunes, recreate the library, all I need to do is, as you said, “add folder”, and iTunes inserts ALL my music (some 120000 lossless/high-res files, so it’s maybe 3 TB or so) all by itself in one go (in the time I take a nice stroll with my dogs). Complete, with all the tags, all the changes. That’s it. No issues; I’ve done this several times over the years: iTunes does it all in one go even with a collection of my size. Since I don’t use iTunes as a music player, but a curating tool, I don’t have any playback settings or playlists in iTunes that I need to worry about.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I used to go the to cinema a lot, but haven’t been there in a long time. I mean, cinema used to be great, but there are several things that have made it less and less attractive:

1. On the one hand, it’s become expensive. Not just the tickets, but parking and food and drink… on the other hand, people’s manner and behavior has lessened… I’ve been to theaters where people use smartphones or talk or eat too loud… can’t stand that. (Never happens in a Philharmonic Hall… I still go to those.)

2. The quality of home theaters has just “caught up”. I mean, today, you can watch movies at home in 4K on a big home screen and excellent sound… so no need to go to the theater… the picture isn’t going to be “better”, just bigger. Unless maybe it’s full IMAX.

3. Often times, you don’t even need to wait, because the movies are almost simultaneously starting already on certain streaming services, and if not, even box office hits take only weeks, maybe a couple of months at the most, before they are available to watch for “free” (if you have a subscription to that particular service, that is).

4. I don’t date anymore.

So not much reason for me to go to the movies. 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Good to know Williams moonlights as a plummer at 94… what a guy!

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Have any of you ever had to re-import all your digital music files?

Not sure what you mean by “re-importing all your digital music files”… re-ripping them all from CD? God beware, thankfully not… that would be quite a mammoth project. But that’s not what you meant either.
Do you mean re-converting them into iTunes from a different format (so basically, iTunes creates new files from something), or simply pointing iTunes to the files and create a new library?

I do curate a large digital collection, it’s my main way to listen to music (my secondary way is my Qobuz subscription). I don’t really play CDs anymore. All my CDs are ripped, plus I have a sizeable portion of lossless/high-res digital downloads from Qobuz, Chandos, Hyperion, Berliner Philharmoniker, and, and and… and indeed, I still use iTunes to curate them, hence they are all in ALAC format.

So if you mean by re-importing just creating a new iTunes library, I’ve done that several times, yes, but it’s never been any work at all… I just point iTunes to the files (..\Music\ALAC), let it create a new library from those files… and that’s it. My music collection is in one folder called “music”, which contains all the music files, a few playlists I use, etc. If I ever change laptops or re-install iTunes, I just point it to the subfolder “Music/ALAC” and voila, I’m done. And I’ve got thousands of files and albums.

Here’s an image of my music folder as shown on a Windows PC (it’s on a QNAP NAS, but connected as a network drive to my PC).

ALAC is the main folder, which contains all the music files (and nothing else), and ALAC is the only folder iTunes has access to.
FLAC contains a few select FLAC albums (that are also in ALAC, that’s for testing FLAC/ALAC differences in certain systems), indexArtwork contains images for MinimServer, MP3 contains a few albums only available as MP3, like MONKEY ISLAND soundtracks from the games, integrity-Logs contains file checksums (for verification/checking), and Playlists contain playlists.

I don’t keep my music collection on the actual drive of my laptop… I try to keep hardly any actual files on the laptop. When I change to a new laptop or computer, all I have to do is install the programs I want to use and set up some personal settings. All my files will all be in place where I need them (cloud, NAS, connected drives, etc.), but not on the laptop itself. The only files on the laptop themselves tend to be temporary, if I do some specific editing.

Not sure what you mean by “custom tags”… does iTunes allow “custom tags”? (I know MP3Tag can insert any custom tag you want, but iTunes won’t read or touch them.)

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Sorry, I’ve never been able to warm to SOIL FESTIVITIES. A bit stark. Maybe some day.

Interesting, it’s always been on of my favorite Vangelis albums, and I find it warm, with fluid, melodic soundscapes.
His next album, INVISIVLE CONNECTIONS (which I also like a lot) is maybe a bit stark, but I find SOIL FESTIVITIES quite the opposite.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

h, okay…

Snyder completely lost it the moment he started working for Netflix.

Yeah, his Star Wars rip offs REBEL MOON for example.

I have not seen it, so I cannot comment on the quality, but REBEL MOON started originally as a STAR WARS project and was pitched to Lucasfilm at one time, so the original idea was to have it play in the STAR WARS universe. So that may explain certain similarities, it wasn’t originally intended as a “rip off”, but it’s a STAR WARS movie that was finally made without any “STAR WARS” franchise backing.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Funny that I came across this today; it’s of course not real, but shows I’m not the only one up for a BIOSHOCK movie. And I mostly think good video games make bad movie templates. This is an exception.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Well Cailin, I know many people feel that a lot of Jerry Goldsmith albums have benefited hugely from being placed in film order (and been expanded), as it follows the whole structure and architecture of the score (within the film) by the composer.

That’s probably because it has been especially true about Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith’s scores tend to be short (compared to the scores at their time), and they were obviously composed with a clear musical structure and architecture in mind, not just a bunch of cues where you can easily change the order. More than most other film composers I know, Goldsmith based classical music architecture on filmic narrative, he was very much inspired by it, so that his scores particularly and more than any other film composer I know of benefited from being released C&C. There are many film composers whose film scores can easily be abbreviated, re-arranged, or reduced to a particular (fitting for whatever purpose) length, but Goldsmith’s scores tend to suffer more than most from such a practice, because they are intricately constructed, and, like a complex structure or dome, if you remove one seemingly unimportant element or move it to another place, you may endanger the entire structure. Goldsmith practically never wrote “throw away” cues or filler material.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

A few years ago I played the videogame BIOSHOCK and found that was one of the best “steampunk” science-fiction stories I have ever encountered. Not a movie, not a series, not a book, no but, surprisingly, a video game. I only play video games once every few years or so, and mostly not for the story, but I was impressed by the “world building” of BIOSHOCK. That’s one of the very few video games I’d think has excellent potential to be made into an excellent (and quite dark) steampunk science-fiction movie.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I started with LPs as well, I still have several hundred LPs. Of course I took great care of them, but I was never, ever entirely happy with LPs. CDs outperform LPs in every objective, measurable engineering dimension. LPs can be charming (I still have mine, and put them up sometimes when I play something), but they are technically inferior across noise, distortion, durability, channel separation, dynamic range, consistency, and convenience.
LPs have higher distortion, less dynamic range, less accurate frequency response, inferior channel separation, not to mention that they are susceptible to scratches and dust and demand high maintenance… not to mention that every single time you play an LP, there is wear and tear, which means theoretically after each and every play our LP sounds worse than the last time. I picked up some (a very few, really, I didn’t have all that much money) film scores (where I feared they might become rare) twice for fear I might wear one out one copy.

Nowadays, once in a while I add an turntable to my setup just for fun (Technics SL-1200 LTD was the last one), and then I sell it again. Because, let’s face it: a good turntable is a fascinating device, they instantly give you the look of a music connoisseur. Turntables are “cool”. That’s why nowadays, you find turntables far more often in movies where the main character has one rather than in actual people’s home. 🙂

Basically, all I ever play are files and I would never want to go back to have to play physical media for music, though I might still put an LP on display. Because LPs have great big covers and have charm.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

I have personally always loved SOIL FESTIVITIES.

It may have been my first “real” Vangelis album (after the New American Orchestra BLADE RUNNER album).

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Indeed, our film score niche is pretty much stable for now.

You can still find great deals on CDs now and then, and there are still a lot of cheap CDs somewhere in second hand shops, there are still CD sales, there are flea markets, etc. But it’s tricky if you look for something specific.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, that was when CDs were mass market. CDs were once a mass market product, from the 1990s to maybe 2010, CDs were a mass market product. They reached its zenith around the turn of the millennium, that’s when they were at their absolute top. And from then on, over years, CDs sales shrunk year by year. So at that time, CDs were priced at their lowest. You could browse record stores in those days and find even new top notch CDs at sale prices. At the same time, many people happily dumped their CDs and switched to MP3. Many CD collections were dissolved; some second hand stores even had to stop buying CDs, because they had to fear they wouldn’t be able to sell them all.
But the situation has changed, now CDs are already a niche product. If now, like LPs, some people re-discover CDs or discover CDs for the first time, it’s more like the “turn of vinyl”. Vinyl was once a mass market product, but it survives now as a niche product. If CDs become more popular now, that doesn’t mean they will return to mass market status, it just means they have reached now more or less the point at which they will remain for some time. But that’s still only 2% of what they were two decades ago. When CDs become more popular now, it’ll mean more people will scout for second hand CDs, but it will not increase the CDs available second hand, hence they will become more expensive. New CDs are produced now in much lower qualities. It’s not like people buy nowadays CDs and then return them because they didn’t really care all that much or were disappointed in the content. Nowadays, people who buy CDs — new or used — usually know what they buy and hold on to them. So an increase in CD interest will actually raise second hand prices.

None of this will effect our small film score niche much though, that’s been pretty much “stabilized” already. I don’t think it’ll have any effect on that niche within the niche.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Presumably, prices on secondary market will go up rather than down if popularity increases.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

So here’s my take on PROJECT HAIL MARY after I slept a night over it.

On the plus side, the movie has real heart. It’s got that warm, Spielbergian glow that comes from two beings, the human Grace and the extra-terrestrial Rocky, forming a bond so earnest it almost feels retro. It’s a love story, of course. Yes, their relationship is simplified. Yes, they get along suspiciously well for two creatures separated by biology, culture, and a few million years of evolution. But it works. It’s honest. It’s sweet. It’s gentle, the kind of connection that makes you lean back and wait for the film to have its moments.

The movie sure looks good. Beautifully shot, confidently scored, Pemperton knows well when to let the music swell and when to step aside. The intercut flashback structure snaps into place with surprising elegance, it actually helps to keep the story going rather than slowing it down. And the special effects? Top‑tier. The atmosphere? I loved that, I loved the feel of loneliness of that ship, the hum of machinery, the quiet terror of deep space.

But, and that’s a big but, the movie is a demonstration how you can do many parts right, but much is lost when something isn’t quite right. And something is not. I am talking about pacing here. And psychology. And believability. Ryan Gosling once again shows that he can carry just about any type of movie, but the problem is the story never truly builds. Let’s look at the wrongs:

Pacing:
Moments that should crescendo simply… happen. Then drift away. Even the big emotional beats feel like they’re checking in rather than arriving. The movie is two and a half hours long, and basically, there are few scenes with a real “pay-off”, there’s just stuff happening. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I enjoyed, but nevertheless, it should have a sort of gravitas, of awe.

Psychology (contains SPOILER):
So it turns out, they pick Ryan Gosling, a character that is established as having no wife, no kids, “not even a dog”, no social connections, and when he refuses, kidnap him and drug him and shoot him up on a literal SUICIDE mission to save EARTH? You know how many people would wake up, look down on Earth and say “fuck you for that!” Much too risky that Grace would be such a guy. That just was a very wrong basic premise for such an otherwise cheerful space trip.

Believability:
And for a (more or less) hard‑sci‑fi film, the script occasionally waves away logic and plausibility. A non‑astronaut turning a ship around to intercept an alien craft heading in a completely different direction? In space? Space, which is, let’s be clear, big. Really BIG. Bigger than an ocean. You know how hard that would be just for one ship to intercept another on the OCEAN? But in space? From a guy who has never navigated a space ship before?

And the mutual last minute rescues — Rocky rescues Grace, Grace rescues Rocky — lands somewhere between touching and overindulgent. Yeah, I know it’s a charming buddy story, sure, and as that it’s all good and sweet. But maybe it’s also a bit too thick, like a dessert with one too many layers of frosting.

Still, I enjoyed it. The music, the atmosphere, the sense of isolation, the charm, that all pulled me in. I felt like I was on that lonely ship, drifting through the dark with only the hum of engines and the hope of connection. So I liked Grace and Rocky, I liked spending time with them.

A flawed film with a beating heart. A beautiful experience that never quite becomes the great one it could have been.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Well, I’ve been expecting this (increased CD sales, that is). After the resurgence of the LP, I suspected it would only be a matter of time before the same thing would happen with the CD.

And I welcome it. CDs is my favourite way of listening to music.

Then you might be happy to hear this:

Ah, the good old CD.
When I started to buy music, the CD was on the horizon, I had heard of CD, seen demos on television in prior years, but really buying CDs was originally not an option. Few film scores were even released on CD, CD players were very expensive at first, and a single CD cost about twice as much as an LP (it’s just the other way around today).
But CD were definitely an improved format: higher dynamic range (important for orchestral/classical music), no background crackles, pops, rumble, clicks or ticks, and rarely was a CD that arrived already “pre-damaged”. Even brand new LPs in those days might have slight or larger issues, depending on pressing… CDs might have issues too, but far, far rarer. So CDs were pretty much the format for audiophile listening sessions from the mid 1980s to the mid 2010’s… It used to be a great past time of mine in the 90s and 2000’s to browser record stores and pick up some new finds.
But those days, for me, are long history. While I still buy CDs if something interests me and it’s not otherwise available or if the price is right, my entire music collection (including all my CDs) is digital files now.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Just saw it… I’m divided on it.
Could write a glowing review or a hefty dismissal.
Will sleep over it.
Wonderful score by Daniel Pemberton throughout.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

The only scientifically plausible explanation.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Zack Snyder’s DAWN OF THE DEAD is one of the best horror movies I’ve ever seen. That was fast paced, clever, realistic (as far as Zombie movies can be realistic), satirical, funny, and quite gripping. It came at a time before “Zombies” were everywhere again, practically a “revival” of these horror creatures from 70s/80s exploitation/splatter cinema.

I have not read Max Brooks’ “Word War Z” (but saw the movie), but his prior book, “The Zombie Survival Guide”, was a hoot, I read that way back when it was new. It’s written as a realistic self-help book about how to survive the inevitable Zombie apocalypse, and let’s you know how to fortify your home, how to proceed in different terrains (from desert to jungle to urban) or how to find and select weapons.
(Short snippet from the chapter about zombie outbreak detection:

Knowing what a zombie is will not help if you are unable to recognize
an outbreak before it’s too late. This does not entail building a “zombie
command post” in your basement, sticking pins in a map, and huddling
around the shortwave radio. All it requires is looking for signs
that would slip by the untrained mind. These signs include:

1. Homicides in which the victims were executed by head shots or
decapitation. It has happened many times: People recognize an outbreak
for what it is and try to take matters into their own hands.
Almost always, these people are declared murderers by the local
authorities and prosecuted as such.

DAWN OF THE DEAD and “Zombie Survival Guide” inspired me way back to write the “Zombieplagelieder”, or “Songs for the Zombie Apocalypse”. Songs which can be sung with friends, family and groups together in the dire days of the Zombieapocalpyse. I passed these around colleagues back then and we had a blast. Mostly spoofs of popular folk and Christmas songs. Considering I wrote these in my late 30s, I suppose I never grew out of anything. 🙂

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