ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
CURRENT PROJECTS - Looking for talent,
fans, money, lightning
Listed below are a variety of film projects that are in various stages of
development. Many seek the involvement of outside collaborators and venture
partners for funding, production, editing, distribution and marketing. Use the
links provided to go to the Stage 32 Website to learn more about each project,
as well as others.
Sylvia
Sylvia Short 35mm 16mm film
Sylvia sits with herself in front of a mirror. Her reflection leads her into
the mirror and deep inside herself and her mind. Sylvia Emakhet Sylvia #2 Camila
Magrane 35mm, 16mm currently in postproduction
Seeking film/theatre journalists in San Francisco, California
View Project »
Catchy
Name Theatre
Experimental theatre company dedicated to exploring the work of new
playwrights.
Seeking playwrights in San Francisco, California
View Project »
Amiable
Amber
TRIPLE HOMICIDE: INNOCENT GIRL GONE BAD “What could have hapened?” What
changed this quiet small town girl. Her name is Amber as we know her today,
formally, Marie Amber Robinson, born to Charles and...
Seeking editors in San Francisco, California
View Project »
Seeking
Screenplay - Human Slavery -
Human Trafficking
We are currently in search of feature length scripts about Human Trafficking
or Human Slavery. Non-Fiction Narrative, Documentary, or Based on Real Stories
are preferred. However, if you have somethin...
Seeking screenwriters in San Francisco, California
View Project »
"Coach"
- Fictional Character, Viral Video Project
(Lead Writer Needed) We are developing an "A.I. avatar" fictional “Coach”
character and viral sensation. We plan to produce 3-4 viral videos (1.5-2 min
long) to be launched on YouTube – which serve to set up an interactiv...
Seeking screenwriters in San Francisco, California
View Project »
compARTmental
LIVES
Screenplay is written, need re-write with another scifi obssessed
screenwriter (will get 2nd writer credit -- or better) and then assemble a force
of talent/crew and $$$ to create a small scifi featur...
Seeking screenwriters in San Francisco, California
View Project »
Personality
Driven Reality Show in San Francisco
Looking to brainstorm with people who have worked on a reality based TV show
- docu-series/perspnality driven. Have a solid concept, budget, and know which
networks to pitch. Would love to gain furthe...
Seeking editors in San Francisco, California
View Project »
My
Girlfriend's a Zombi
A freshman college student at Medicore has successfully, accidentally, turned
his entire town into Zombi's! There's just one thing, these zombi's don't know
they're zombi's! They go to work, school, a...
Seeking editors in Sacramento, California
View Project »
Capps
Crossing
Capps Crossing is a feature horror/thriller. We are now casting at http://www.cappscrossing.com
please spread the word about our campaign and see the teaser at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mike...
Seeking editors, and music composers in Sacramento, California
View Project »
Suicide
or Murder?
Thriller about a murder that happened years ago and David tries to uncover
the truth. The question is was it Suicide or Murder?
Seeking editors in San Francisco, California
View Project »
Stage 32 Scores Great Interview
Terrence Stamp
Stage
32, the film industry-focused, Web-based community
(link to their
homepage) referenced occasionally at RARWRITER.com as
one of our favorites, is currently running the final
installment of their excellent interview with British actor
Terrence Stamp" (shown
here). Stamp drilled his image and theatrical presence into
the hearts, minds and souls of the Baby Boomer generation
through an extraordinary series of characters - Billy Budd
(1962), Freddie Clegg in The Collector (1965), Sgt.
Troy in Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), Blue
(1968) - and has continued to be a major theatrical force in
current cinema. As happens, he is a man of many talents and
interests, and it was for the purpose of promoting his
micro-publishing house Escargot Books, through which he has
recently published Rare Stamps: Reflections on Living,
Breathing & Acting, that he granted the interview
with Stage 32. The book is described as "a must read not only
for all actors, but any creative hoping to make a living in
the film industry". (There is that word "creative",
small "c" used once again as a noun! When did this happen?)
Stamp's interest in interviewing on this subject makes him a
natural for Stage 32, a site that offers extraordinary
insight into the inner workings of the American film
industry. Terrence Stamp feels like one of those important
theatrical presences who has accompanied us through our
lives, and he never disappoints. In fact, part of his
lasting appeal has been that he often surprises (the
character Bernadette, for instance, from The Adventures
of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). There are only a
handful of such actors in the world, and it is really cool
for Stage 32 to have the opportunity, done so well, to
present this wonderful feature. Check it out!
Grand Jury
Winner: Beware of Mr. Baker
Director: Jay Bulger
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Grand Jury
Winner: Gimme The Loot
Director: Adam Leon
Ginger Baker Documentary
Top Documentary at SXSW
Film Festival
Beware of Mr. Baker,
the Jay Bulger-directed
documentary on legendary jazz-rock drummer
Ginger Baker (Creem, Blind
Faith, Air Force) has been awarded the Grand Jury Winner in
the Documentary category at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival.
Former rhythm mate Jack Bruce
was once quoted as saying that Ginger Baker was a great
drummer, but not someone you wanted to have over to the
house. So this documentary details the life of a difficult
musical genius, whose African-styled poundings were, in
retrospect, the thing that separated Creem, and the other
bands he performed with, from the other jam-oriented
progressive blues-rock bands of the latter '60s and early
'70s.
First-time director Bulger spent four years on this
hilarious and harrowing piece, after first publishing a
story on Baker in Rolling Stone, which led him to believe
there was more story to tell. So Beware of Mr. Baker was
born. You can see the trailer below. Go to the Cinema page
for additional information on the 2012
SXSW Film Festival.
__________
Eden - Jamie Chung's
Human Trafficking Film
Jamie Chung received a
Special Jury Recognition for Performance for her film
Eden, about the trafficking of human beings. A few months back, while
Eden was still in development, this video below was posted on YouTube. Things,
since then, have been working out well for this labor of love film, and for
Jamie Chung.
Booster -
Nico Stone Honored for Crime Flick
"When Simon's brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is
asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother
acquitted. Caught between loyalty to his brother and his own will, Simon is
forced to examine his life." So goes the setup for this trailer for Booster,
honored at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival for the performance of Nico Stone.
Booster is another of the successful "Kickstarter" projects, which has
become a popular model for fundraising for creative projects.
Special Jury
Recognition for Performance:
Jamie Chung – Eden
Besedka Johnson – Starlet
Nico Stone – Booster
Feature Film Audience
Awards
DOCUMENTARY
FEATURE
Winner: Bay of All Saints
Director: Annie Eastman
NARRATIVE
FEATURE
Winner: Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths
Short Film Jury Awards
NARRATIVE SHORTS
Winner: The Chair
Director: Grainger David
TEXAS HIGH
SCHOOL SHORTS
Winner: Boom
Director: Daniel Matyas & Brian Broder
SXSW Film Design
Awards presented by iStockphoto
EXCELLENCE IN
POSTER DESIGN
Winner: Man & Gun
Designer: Justin Cox
Special Jury
Recognition: Pitch Black Heist
Designer: Andrew Cranston
Audience Award
Winner: The Maker
Designer: Christopher Kezelos
EXCELLENCE IN
TITLE DESIGN
Winner: Les
Bleus de Ramville
Designer: Jay Bond, Oily Film Company Inc.
Special Jury
Recognition: X-Men: First Class
Designer: Simon Clowes, Prologue Films
Audience Award
Winner: Bunraku
Designer: Guilherme Marcondes, Hornet Inc.
SXSW Special Awards
SXSW WHOLPHIN
AWARD
Winner: The Black Balloon
Director: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
SXSW CHICKEN &
EGG EMERGENT NARRATIVE WOMAN DIRECTOR AWARD
Winners: Megan Griffiths for Eden and Amy Seimetz for Sun
Don’t Shine
LOUIS BLACK
“LONE STAR” AWARD
Winner: Bernie
Director: Richard Linklater
Special Jury
Recognition: Trash Dance
Director: Andrew Garrison
KAREN SCHMEER
FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP
Presented to: Lindsay Utz
Corey Landis New Material and
a Film Nomination
Singer-songwriter and
RARWRITER.com favorite Corey Landis
routinely releases new original material, all of which is
clever and entertaining. His current release comes with a
tie-in to his movie career.
"My new song, 'Sometimes Aunt
Martha Does Dreadful Things', is now available for preview
and download. It's a weird little a capella number about the
obscure B horror film of the same same. You can take a
listen at
www.Soundcloud.com and if you like it head on over to
www.coreylandis.com
and download it. You can also check it out in video form on
YouTube.
"I've been nominated once
again for a Golden Cob Award--sponsored by the B-Movie
Celebration--for my work as Jonathan Harker in Dracula:
Reborn. Even though it's not out yet, if you believe I
probably did an OK job, please vote for me for best actor at
www.goldencobawards.com. "
Corey
is well known for appearing in films on the SyFy Channel,
and one of his films from last summer, Dinocroc Vs.
Supergator, is now available for pre-order on DVD and
Blu-ray from Amazon.
_______________
Kyle Jarrow's
Armless on DVD
New York City -
Armless, which was a selection of the 2010 Sundance Film
Festival and written by experimental playright Kyle Jarrow,
featured frequently on this site, is available on DVD on
February 22nd. Directed by Habib Azar, starring Janel
Maloney and Daniel London, Armless is a comedy about a guy
who wishes only to have his arms removed, for all sorts of
reasons that are detailed in the course of the film. Wrote
film reviewer Scott Weinberg, "It all sounds like the set-up
for a silly, gory joke, but hats off to director Habib Azar
and screenwriter Kyle Jarrow for setting up an outlandish
premise (sad man wants his arms taken off) and delivering a
fascinating little handful of thoughts, themes, and ideas
that might actually make one feel better about THEIR own
'creepy little secrets."' That's a pretty impressive feat
for a weird little micro-budgeted dark comedy."
TCM - Classic Movie Channel
The images used in the piece above are all selected
from films I happened to see over the past few days on TCM - The Classic Movie
Channel, which is available through most cable services. I was on a "cargo"
kick. A few notes on those films:
Strange Cargo (1940) is the first film
Clark Gable made after Gone With the Wind,released in 1939 (a huge
color extravaganza). This film was notable in other ways. It has a strange story
line involving the escape of "criminals" from a French penal colony in
Central America. The escapees are
joined by Joan Crawford, portraying a local entertainer who loses her gig
(working for Peter Lorre, playing the character "Pig") for communing with
prisoners, most notably Gable, whom she met while he was on a dock work detail.
Among the escapees is a Christ-like figure played by Ian Hunter, whose
purpose in the film seems to be to remind these thugs, some much "thuggier" than
others, of their humanity. He seems, in particular, to shadow Gable, who is part
alpha thug and part romantic hero. He is Rhett Butler without money. The
spiritual overtones got this film blacklisted by the Catholic Legion of Decency,
unfathomable as that now seems. While the story is notable for its trippy
religious qualities, the real attraction is Joan Crawford, who after a decade of
MGM films, including 7 with Gable, made this one sans makeup and the histrionics
that were her staples. She is so special in this film, in which she was trying
to convince people that she was a real actress, that it makes one wonder why the
painted cartoon character that most of us remember as Joan Crawford was ever
allowed to exist. This is not a great film but it is way worth watching. Gable
and Crawford spend much of it being buffeted by wind, rain and sea water and
resting in mud, and it is a great example of what black & white cinematography
does to "EQ" the telling of a story. You will need to see it to understand.
Of Mice and Men (1939) is the first film
adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1937 novella, which was structured along the
lines of a play. Like Steinbeck's other work, this focuses on marginally
employed workers during the 1930s Depression, the setting here being a "ranch"
near Salinas where friends (George says they are cousins) George Milton (Burgess
Meredith) and Lenny Smalls (Lon Chaney, Jr.) find work as field
hands. They encounter a work place in which every character present is "wounded"
in one way or another, none worse than the ill-fated Lenny whose intellect is no
match for his physical strength. Burgess Meredith gives a weird performance as
George, his motivations for protecting Lenny being so confused as to make one
wonder if there isn't some subtle homosexual subtext between them. That was not
among the criticisms of the work, which included anti-business sentiment,
pro-euthanasia philosophy, racial slurs and offensive language. Chaney dropped
his given name, Creighton, and became Lon Chaney, Jr. in 1935, following the
death of his famous acting father, the "Man of a Thousand Faces". Most of us
would come to know Lon Chaney, Jr. for his work in horror films, most notably as
"The Wolfman", but he was aspiring to be a real actor in Of Mice and Men and
seems to grow, in that regard, as the film plays out. He is a clumsy oaf, but
then so is the character he is playing. There are great performances from Betty
Field (Mae), Charles Bickford (Slim), Roman Bohnen (Candy), Bob Steele (Curley),
Noah Beery Jr. (Whit) and Leigh Whipper (Crooks), and from the
others in the cast, as well. In some respects, the two
leads are the weakest of the bunch, but it doesn't make any difference. The
production is riveting, a little like a train wreck in slow motion if such could
tug at heart strings. The story contains some of the most iconic or archetypal
characters in modern fiction, though was it fiction? Steinbeck, pre-fame, worked on such
ranches and always said Of Mice and Men was based on a real experience
with a simple man, like Lenny, who killed a ranch foreman
with a pitchfork and ended up in an asylum for the criminally insane. One could see how Steinbeck created the ranch foreman Curly as
a guy who could embolden that kind of action.
Sealed Cargo (1951) is a World War II
yarn perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Dana Andrews plays a Gloucester,
Massacusetts fisher boat captain struggling to crew his vessel with all the most
capable workers gone off to the war. He takes aboard a Danish fisherman who
becomes more mysterious as the story develops. Another Dane aboard the ship
questions the new man's authenticity. He speaks a Danish dialogue unfamiliar to
the Dane Andrews knows, and he seems not to know things about the ports in
Denmark that a Danish fisherman should know. The first night out, Andrews radio
equipment is mysteriously destroyed, and suspicions mount. Also on board is a
mysterious woman who Andrews had reluctantly agreed to transport to the port at
Trabo, but the trip involves braving German U-Boat attacks, which have been
steady along the shipping lanes to Great Britain. Things get weirder and more
complicated when, during a thick fog, Andrews trawler hears the sounds of a
naval assault and comes upon a schooner that has been riddled with holes, but
all above the water line, odd if the intent of the attackers was to sink the
ship. On board Andrews and his search party find Claude Rains, the ship's
captain, who insists that Andrews pull his tattered schooner to port at Trabo.
Once there, the increasingly nervous Andrews starts to sniff around the ghostly
schooner a little more, and he discovers that besides the regular ship's hold,
there is a second sealed compartment. This is a great story and a wonderful
example of the particular qualities of black & white photography. During the
foggy night when Andrews' crew first hears the distant gun fire, there is a
wonderful sequence in which the fog lights up before them from time to time, as
explosions go off in the un-seeable distance. It is totally cool and probably a
scene that would not have benefited from the additional information that might
have been provided by color, the lack thereof emphasizing the crew's fear and
uncertainty about what they were sailing into.
A FACE IN THE CROWD
Director Elia Kazan's A Face In the Crowd
(1957) is one of the most important cultural artifacts in all of United
States film history. (In 2008, A Face in the Crowd was selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".)
Written by Bud Schulberg (it was adapted from his short story "Your
Arkansas Traveler"), it is a brilliant call to attention that America, and
therefore the world, was being sold a bill of goods by the kind of "K Street"
product packagers that would eventually come to own U.S. politics and therefore
U.S. public policy. Schulberg tells the story of "Lonesome" Rhodes, an Arkansas
grifter who parlays a gift for singing and story telling into a radio program
that launches him to national prominence. Portrayed by Andy Griffith, who
was born to play the part, Rhodes is a volatile and dangerous blend of
right-wing ideology and populist manipulation, as insincere and amoral a man as
has ever been splashed across the big screen. Grinning, growling, screaming and
revving up the energy, it is an electric and unforgetable performance. Add to
that the extraordinary Patricia Neal, who plays the radio producer who
launches Rhodes on his radio career and falls for him only to see him become a
"monster"; Walter Matthau, who scripts Rhodes' media performances, sees
through Rhodes and acts as the film's conscious; Tony Franciosa, an
amoral and opportunistic office boy who molds himself into Rhodes' agent and
rides his coat tails to prominence; and Lee Remick, who made her film
debut as a baton twirling vixen who marries Rhodes only to become intoxicated
with the New York City high life and is eventually jettisoned back to Arkansas.
Schulberg pre-dated Paddy Chayefsky's explorations into the growing menace of
the American media as ours evolved from a radio to a television culture. His
wicked characterization of the homespun, and essentially nasty, Lonesome Rhodes
was based, to varying degrees on other less malevolent homespun media heroes
including Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Will Rogers.
- RAR
As an avowed "Beatle-Head" - i.e., a guy who is
pretty convinced that The Beatles are the only band of the "rock age" that ever
really mattered in any ongoing way, as have Mozart, Bach and Beethoven - I tend to
be pretty slow to warm to "Beatles projects". Some, like Robert Stigwood's 1978
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band starring the brothers Gibb (and
other "natural" Beatle interpreters, like the late George Burns) was just so awful
that it hurt. The movie, that is, but never the music.
In fact, The Beatles songbook is so extraordinary
that it tends to elevate everyone it touches, if not everyone who touches it.
We didn't get to hear The Beatles play their music
live after 1966; didn't get the thrill of the kind of concert hall productions
that were later afforded to other bands, like the Moody Blues and Pink Floyd.
When I have heard The Beatles catalog played live
and with
special care, it has been an extraordinary thing to hear. Paul McCartney has an
excellent band that does the songbook with the authenticity one might expect
from the most
successful songwriter in the history of recorded music. It is
the music of his life, and the one guy left standing who can do the sound as it
was born. Still, because McCartney wasn't the entirety of The Beatles, and
because he has toured the catalog he plays for decades, as if he needs
the money, and probably because he is 67 years old, his performances tend to
feel the influences. It is near perfect, almost the real deal, but casual
in that way that Golden Oldies shows are. It is a credit to McCartney the
musician that his current act is as great as it is. Kudos to his band, too,
which is dynamite.
CBS Orchestra bassist
Will Lee plays in a Beatles tribute band called The Fab Faux that faithfully
reproduce the sound, including that of the band's later complex arrangements
and vocal harmonies. They do an extraordinary job, about as good as a cover band
can get. I once saw a performance of the much derided "Beatlemania",
the long-running Broadway tribute to The Beatles, that was extraordinarily
impressive as a musical presentation, however clumsy its exploitations. And
there are some really fine Beatles Tribute bands around the country, all
endeavoring to do faithful reproductions of the The Beatles' catalog and sound.
Beatles songs have been licensed for
reinterpretation, in various forms, to varying degrees of success. The original
recordings are so engrained in the DNA of the world population that most modern
renditions by current rock singers reveal the degree to which the new falls
short of measuring up to the original.
There was a period of schmaltzy exploitations by old
crooners, like Frank Sinatra, trying to interpret Beatles tunes to "modernize"
their catalogs in hopes of appealing to a generation younger than their own, and
those were as awful as the instrumental versions produced as white sound for
elevators and shopping malls.
RECOGNIZING MAGIC:
Julie Taymor's Across the Universe achieved something truly special in
the way the film uses 33 Beatles tunes to create something like operatic
narrative, in the process revealing fresh and exciting insights into these
songs that have been the soundtrack of our cross-generational lives from 1963 to
the present.
Listening to "All My Loving" performed by Londoner
Jim Sturgess, a University of Salford's School of Media, Music and Performance
alumni who does a spot-on Liverpool accent, has one hearing anew some mystical
thread that runs through The Beatles songbook in ways that are immediately
apparent and yet difficult to fully grasp or comprehend.
In fact, this magical aspect of The Beatles is
clearly the muse that set Taymor off on her romantically visionary exploration
of the revolutionary '60s and "all their meaning".
There was an extraordinary convergence of
social-political, psychic, spiritual, intellectual, creative and moral-ethical
energy in the 1960s, that some talked about in terms of a new age, the
dawning of the "Age of Aquarius", though the exact timing of that planetary
alignment, that astrologers expect to deliver a long period of elevated human
sensitivity and response, is open to interpretation and debate. Whatever it
was, the 1960s were a period of explosive change, and amid it all were The
Beatles, whose songs and personalities both reflected and transcended their
times. The Fab Four seemed to know that, for reasons that made no sense
whatsoever, they were positioned to guide us all through turbulent times, and it
was done through their music.
Perhaps their was a shaman influence there, as Jim
Morrison of the Doors claimed was at work in the inspiration for his creations.
There was a consistent message in The Beatles
music that was present from "Please Please Me" through "Let It Be", some
indefinable, indescribable vein of something like truth that came through as a
feeling that was exclusively theirs. One could attempt to sound like The
Beatles, to write songs that suggested things done by The Beatles, but The
Beatles were somehow in touch with some vibration that came to the world
exclusively through
them, and could not be duplicated. This, I believe, is the thing that fans of
the music responded to as spirituality, and its power was that it could
be shared however impossible it was to describe. It made young girls explode
into uncomprehending screams and made older listeners break into broad smiles.
It is this that Julie Taymor, working with
screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, channeled into this extraordinary
film. All of the visual tricks that Taymor developed through her Off-Broadway
and Broadway successes (she directed and later filmed Shakespeare's 'Titus
Andronicus', brought "The Lion King" to Broadway, and won Oscars for her film
Frida), and earlier as a puppet master in Japan, are on display in this
wildly inventive film.
The music, however, is the big treat. There is an
instrumental version of "A Day In the Life" that is one of the most beautiful
pieces you will ever hear played. It sent me scrambling to find out who the
guitarist was. It was Jeff Beck, playing with remarkable beauty and sensitivity,
providing with his singular performance a symbol of the quality that undergirds
this entire film effort.
Joey
Newman is a third generation film composer of the famed Hollywood
musical Newman dynasty. A drummer and pianist, he began serious
composition studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, earning his
Bacheloer of Music Degree in 1998. He returned to Los Angeles where he
began working in television with Emmy-winning composer W.G. "Snuffy"
Walden, having co-composed the final seasons of ABC's Once and Again and
NBC's Providence while providing orchestrations for NBC's The West Wing
and a number of other prime-time dramas and sitcoms.
Joey
Newman contacted RARWRITER after the review of the Corey Landis album was
published and had this to say - "I think that Corey is a talent
that's truly undiscovered. He has this "rough-around-the-edges"
way about his performance and music, but as I listen to his material I
feel the longevity in it. I can put this record on 10 years from now and
still love it the same way I do now. It's all because the guy knows how to
write a good song - bottom line. Corey can write the quirky tune to the
beautiful ballad and it feels seamless. I knew that if Corey could get a
hand to help him polish his sound up enough (from arrangements to mixing)
to compete with the rest, he would wind up with something unique and
amazing - and that's what I feel we've put out."
...AND THE "NEWMAN
FAMILY DYNASTY"
RAR
has been messing up the Newman family tree, not through incursion but
through misreporting (a specialty here at RARWRITER.com). Here is how Joe
Newman explains his branch of the famous family's "tree."
"There's
one thing about your review I just wanted to point out and that would be
my family connection. I am related as a 'cousin' and not a 'son' or
'nephew'. Here's how it works:
"My
grandfather is Lionel Newman1 -
Alfred's2 youngest brother.
"Thomas
Newman3 and David Newman4
are brothers and Alfred's sons.
"Randy
Newman5 is Irving Newman's6
(Alfred's other brother - he had 6 brothers!) son.
"So,
as you can see Randy is 1st cousin to Thomas and David and I am 1st cousin
once-removed to all of them (as I am 3rd generation composer and 2nd
cousin to all of their children). I only mention this because you were so
specific about my relation. I must say, that is the first time anyone has
thought that I was Thomas' son! If anything, I mostly get Randy's
nephew...."
So,
did you get that? No, I didn't either...but the notes below will help.-RAR
1Lionel
Newman - Joey Newman's grandfather was piano accompanist for Mae
West before scoring three dozen films and several TV series, adapting
and conducting scores for hundreds of other films. His classic TV themes
include "The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis," "Adventures in
Paradise," and "Daniel Boone." He was Music Director for
all of Marilyn Monroe's films at Fox (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
There's No Business Like Show Business, River of No Return, and Let's
Make Love). He received eleven Academy Award nominations, and won an
Oscar for Hello Dolly! in 1969.
2Alfred
Newman (1900-1970) - Major American composer of music for films. A
musical prodigy, Alfred was conducting the Broadway musicals of George
Gershwin, Richard Rogers, and Jerome Kern by the time he was 20
years old. He accompanied Irving Berlin to Hollywood, becoming the
conductor for Samuel Goldwyn's United Artists films, then did a 21-year
stint as Music Director for 20th Century-Fox Studios, composing the
studio's familiar fanfare. Developed the means of synchronizing the
performance and recording of a musical score to film. Dubbed "the
Newman System," it remains in use to this day. He received 45 Academy
Award nominations (a record in the music categories, now shared with John
Williams), winning 9 times; in 1940 he was nominated for 4 different
films.
3Thomas
Newman - Yale educated film-scorer broke through in 1984 with the film
Reckless. Earned two Academy Award nominations for his scores to Little
Women and The Shawshank Redemption; the only double-nominee of
1994. Subsequent successes have included his scores for American Beauty
(winner of the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion
Picture, Television or Other Visual Media), Road to Perdition, Finding
Nemo, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Good
German. He composed the music for the television version of Angels
in America, as well as for HBO's series "Six Feet Under,"
which won Grammy Awards in 2003 for Best Instrumental Composition and Best
Instrumental Arrangement. At the 79th Academy Awards, Thomas Newman
appeared in the opening segment by Errol Morris correcting a claim that he
had been nominated for and not won an Academy Award eight times:
"I've lost seven times; tonight it will be eight."
4David
Newman - Son of Alfred Newman, brother of Thomas Newman, and a
cousin of composer Randy Newman. The USC product found film score success
working with actor/director Danny Devito, beginning with Throw
Momma from the Train (1987) through The War of the Roses
(1989), Hoffa (1992) and Matilda (1996). He received an
Academy Award nomination for the score to the animated film Anastasia.
In 1997, David Newman began a four year stint as the music director for
the Sundance Institute.
5Randy
- Nephew of Alfred Newman, son of Irving Newman, Randy became well-known
to the general public as a pop commentary songwriter, penning such
humorously acidic classics as "Sail Away," "Political
Science," and "You Can Leave Your Hat On" and many others.
L.A.-born and UCLA educated, Randy grew up in New Orleans and benefited
from the musical culture of the place. He has been writing film scores
since 1971 (Cold Turkey), has been nominated for Academy Awards 16
times, and won in 2001 for "If I Didn't Have You," written for Monsters
Inc.
6Irving
Newman - Father of Randy, brother of the family's grand patriarch
Alfred Newman.
Joey
Newman (born
September 9, 1976) is a Los Angeles-based film composer, orchestrator,
arranger and conductor. He is the son of bassist/vocalist Joe Frank
Carollo of the 1970's soft-rock group Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.
He is also the grandson of Lionel Newman, the grandnephew of Alfred Newman
and Emil Newman and the cousin of Randy Newman, Thomas Newman, and David
Newman. Joey was educated at the Berklee College of Music in Boston,
MA. - from Wikipedia