BruceH

Exactly. Not for the first time, that article made me think that if the big three US car makers want to compete with foreign car makers all they have to do is manufacture cars that are just as reliable and fuel efficiant, or more. This they won't or can't do. The results are predictable.

I like quite a bit of what could be termed "mid century orchestral pop." Yes, some of it can be dreary, but the top orchestral arrangers are right up there with any of the great jazz arrangers in my book. Right on.

The three or four sequels to The Witches of Karres that James H. Schmitz never wrote.

I wonder if Republicans will admit that global warming is a fact by then.

Not unless being an uncrowned king makes you gay.

All the best, brownie!

There probably will be a few jazz fans in 100 years, but the real question is, will they be riding in all-electic, automated, flying cars?

Please hurt 'em with your hammer.

Moving across the pond, David? I like visiting San Diego so I am looking into property there. All a bit hypothetical. The outlook there is murky.

Thanks for this.

Chambers/Kelly

My copy of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 soundtrack came in.

Vee-Jay Shorter/Morgan

What about asian alto players?

I adore the soundtrack to North By Northwest. I really should buy that someday. Me too. Surprised it took 3 pages of posts to mention this one by name. Perhaps my favorite film as well. Signature Hitchcock sound! Come to think of it, NBN is my favorite late Hitchcock film, favorite late Cary Grant film, and may be my favorite late Herrmann score. Not a bad little flick.

The use of Iggy Pop's Lust for life was quite memorable. Makes me think of cruise lines for some reason.

Thanks for posting that article.

Indian givers.

Indeed. Smokey the Bear has a lot to answer for.

Me too. Five years or so ago, I bought a book which listed hundreds or thousands of movie soundtrack albums and rated them, much as Leonard Maltin's books rate movies. I noticed that an extremely high rating was given to John Barry's music for The Knack (and How to Get It), so I bought the CD. I enjoy it. The problem with albums of this type is that the composers usually wrote three melodies for the movie (I guess you would call them motifs) and then played them over and over during the course of the film. So the albums consist of forty-five minutes of variations on only three themes. I know exactly what you mean, but sometimes it can be fun hear those motifs or themes in various arrangements. This is one of the things I liked about soundtrack albums (the 'through-composed' type) as a kid.

Another type I can think of is what scholars call "diagetic," where the music emerges naturally from the reality of the scene, whether from performers, radios, etc. Of course, often all three of these types appear in the same film. Of course, I assume that Vanity Fair's article is a list of best soundtrack albums. Of course. I call the diagetic the "sound" soundtrack. Just to confuse matters, most of the songs on the Diner soundtrack issued from jukeboxes, car radios, record players, and so on during the course of the film. What a surprise that you would mention that album. (And it is a classic!)

...And we can also see Paris Hilton holding up a copy of Trout Mask Replica. What an amazing, wonderful modern age we live in.

Seems there's at least two types of soundtrack: One is the kind that uses original music composed specifically for the film (the North By Northwest soundtrack for instance.) The other and newer approach is basically a collection of previously released songs, some of which were used in the movie. Call it the "classic hits" or post-American Graffitti approach. (In this category, the Diner soundtrack has to be one of my favorites.) Purple Rain and A Hard Days Night were done by musical acts that essentially provided their own classic hits so they stand a bit between (original but still song-oriented) but most of the VF list seems to be very much in the second mode. While I love The Harder They Come as much as the next person (alt. title "Early Reggae's Greatest Hits"), when I hear the word "Soundtrack" I usually think of Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Joseph Kosma and the like.

(Then there's the ugly.)

I'd pretty much go along with Ellington's famous "good music and bad music" pronouncement, with the caveat that sometimes the bad can be kinda good, and every once in a while the good can be kinda...bad.