(::fumbles::) My Panache!

Currently in Earphones: Cyrano de Bergerac Soundtrack, composed by Jean-Claude Petite

::sips Lady Grey tea:: Ahh, getting back into the swing of living in a house with a kitchen.

Classes are all pretty good so far. Prof. Rex Stem is one of the coolest: he's a new fellow to UCD and is teaching both my Classics 3 (Rome and the Mediterranean) and my Latin 111 ("Silver Age" Latin). He's also one of the most eminently quotable:

"Rome was a laid back cow town before Augustus."

"Rome Sacked Veii in 396 BC, then didn't really know what to do with it. Imagine if Davis one day charged north and sacked Woodland. What the heck would we do with all that wealth and land?"

"The Gauls were so impressed [by their noble and passive resistance] that they ALMOST didn't kill them."

"Afterward Scipio earned the honorary title of 'Africanus,' meaning, of course, 'the man who soundly whupped Africa's tookus.'"

And so on. A very cool fellow.

Both my Philosophy class and my Geology class aren't really anything to write home about. The only love/hate aspect I have is with the Geology portion. While I find the material fascinating and actually enjoy reading the textbook, my professor simultaneously blitzes through her powerpoints, doesn't explain things very well, and can be very difficult to understand.

My job at the Scene shop is chugging along nicely. It's fun to watch things take shape and form, and to almost-literally build things out of nothing. Though I'm getting more adept at using the various circular saws for the multitudinous wood cutting we do, I still shy away from some of the bigger daddies, like the metal saw and the grinders. I'm also getting over the vertigo of the giant Paint Frame that sinks to the basement, about 13 feet below ground level. Having to walk along next to the food-and-a-half wide by 60-70 feet long hole where the frame descends is a little harrowing, especially when navigating the various paint buckets in the paint corner where there's only 3-4 feet of clearance. Other than that, I'm really enjoying working there.

Missing Anja has kind of subsided into a dull ache that I can work around, but the few times I'm able to talk to her make me feel better. She's doing very well in Ireland, and I'm glad she's happy. I only hope that at the end of this all we can still emerge as a "we," or (dare I think it) perhaps an "us." My few female friends have been supportive, however; It's good to know there are others wishing you well.

And on to Soundtrack business. First off, I finally got my hands on a copy of the second-most well known Immediate Music album, "Abbey Road." It's just as cool as "Themes for Orchestra and Choir," and features some great cues. Around the same time, I discovered that a performing group called "Globus" had spun off from Immediate Music (with Goren of the Fayman/Goren duo responsible for most of Immediate Music's library) and, wonder of wonders, went on tour and produced a CD! For Consumer purchase! I was incredibly stoked as I did some research, and found that Globus had a myspace page with a few full-length samples. My high was diminished a bit when I realized that pretty much all the samples (and later, all of the album) were remixed versions of their more famous Production cues. One called "Preliator" was a redone "Lacrimosa" (of the Spider-Man 2 trailer fame), "Diem Ex Dei" was a remixed "Lucius Dei," etc. etc. The remixes were actually quite good, and a copy of the album "Epicon" is working it's way to my doorstep. On a final note, I finally have a genre for the type of music Immediate Music (and other production music libraries) put out: Cinematic Rock. The Myspace page made mention of it.

Secondly, in soundtrackville, I got a copy of Cyrano de Bergerac, or the music used in the 1990 version of the film by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. The fun bit of trivia there was that the composer was asked directly to freely adapt Danny Elfman's "Batman" theme into the soundtrack. Jean-Claude Petite did so, and Elfman naturally sued for plagiarism. The funny thing is that the "Batman" theme isn't even cleverly concealed: it's right there in a few of the tracks, honkingly obvious. What's even more funny (and interesting) is that Petite won, citing that some of Elfman's music was uncannily similar to his own, which, evidently, it was. As Preston said of this anecdote, "I'm borrowing it back."

That's all for now. I'll post about my continuing foray back into fencing at a later date.

Enough. More Later,
- James