1,076

(469 replies, posted in Episodes)

Can't express how bummed I am. That said, I'm all for just going with The Intermission.

A little melodramatic, and inaccurate as it's not a song but a podcast, and it's not over, just retitled—but it fits the mood, and I just can't resist taking every opportunity I can to spread the awesomeness that is The Who. And as I said, bummed, man.

1,077

(304 replies, posted in Episodes)

BigDamnArtist wrote:

Dammit Darth Praxus, I'm hooked on this musical now. I've been listening to it for the last couple days. So good.

I honestly can't listen to The Cat and The Moon without instantly getting happy now, damn Hobbit drinking songs.

Glad to be of service, sir. smile It's even better if you watch the official music video for the song, featuring tons of awesomely choreographed Hobbit-dancing.

1,078

(304 replies, posted in Episodes)

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone's ever listened to the soundtrack from the LotR musical (sorry if this is earlier in the thread; didn't want to have to dig through it all)? It's a nice mix of insanely catchy Hobbit drinking chants and beautiful half-English half-Elvish pieces. For a taste of the former:

And the latter:

1,079

(364 replies, posted in Episodes)

The Hunt for Red October?

1,080

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Dorkman wrote:

I'm still reading The Eye of the World

Get out while you still can.

Dorkman wrote:

Currently listening to True Grit, a bit over halfway through (it's a short book -- 6 hours audio unabridged). I haven't seen the John Wayne version, but the Coens nailed it. I am still planning to go over to 11/22/63 next, and possibly Under the Dome after that, just out of curiosity.

True Grit is one of the few books whose film counterpart I liked better. I'd rank them #3. Wayne movie #2. Novel #1. The Coens movie (which you guys should totally do a commentary for, BTW). 11/22/63 is great, not least because King was forced to outline the whole thing beforehand due to the nature of the story and thus avoided his usual problem of the ending going completely to hell. Under the Dome

  Show
doesn't avoid this problem
but is still lots of fun (and the first King novel I ever read).

1,081

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Just finished It, the final King novel I'll be reading until Doctor Sleep comes out. Wow. Just...WOW. I believe it's the best thing he ever wrote. Yes, the ending was a bit anticlimactic, and

  Show
Beverly having sex with all six guys as kids was completely unnecessary and rather gross
, but the preceding 1,000 pages of King doing what he does best, dealing with the loss of childhood innocence and loved ones, is utterly astonishing. It's so emotionally powerful, by turns hilarious and tragic, and the first 150 pages alone are a textbook example of how to build unbearable amounts of dread in the reader. I think it's my new second-favorite book (Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes will always be first).

A reviewer in a local magazine said that he felt the film would have been far better if Nathan Fillion had played Oz instead of Franco. I concur wholeheartedly. We *need* him in a blockbuster production.

1,083

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Hansen wrote:
Darth Praxus wrote:

Spin is fantastic. I'd skip the sequels.

See, I didn't even know there were sequels before you mentioned them, but now that I do know, I have to read them.

I fear I have condemned you to a terrible fate. tongue

1,084

(364 replies, posted in Episodes)

Might I suggest that you guys revisit Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and see if you want to add it to the list along with the other traditionally animated ones you've listed. I know Teague said in the Aladdin commentary he doesn't remember it that fondly, which I understand, because the music isn't of the showstopping variety. However, it's *immensely* powerful ("Hellfire", anyone?), and the film itself is Disney's most mature animated film--it's startlingly dark and adult (contains swearing, sexually frustrated clergyman that wants to rape the female lead, child murder, etc. etc.), and they'd never be able to get away with it now. If it weren't for the mood whiplash caused by the comic relief that the higher-ups insisted upon, it'd be Disney's finest film, and it's still my favorite despite that flaw.

Edit: Also, no love for Hitchcock's The Birds?

1,085

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Also, a recommendation for you, Teague--Info-bloody-quake. Read it, you'll thank me (I hope).

1,086

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Spin is fantastic. I'd skip the sequels. For similar stuff, if you like short stories, Night Shade Books' annual The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, edited by Jonathan Strahan, has something for everybody, including lots of stories similar in tone to Spin. Volumes 3 and 6 have been the best so far, but I haven't read 7 yet as it isn't released until this Tuesday. I've been looking forward to it all year. big_smile

1,087

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

An example in both a book and its film adaptation: in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, why did Moody/Crouch have to wait until the very end of the tournament to send Harry to Voldemort using a portkey? Why not do it at the beginning of the year? It can't be a matter of self-preservation, because he clearly cares far more about Voldemort's return than he does his own life.

I think that science fiction at its best always says something about the human condition, because every future world it creates is commentary on where the author thinks we will go (or wants to prevent us from going) as a society. I agree with you that sci-fi is better when it challenges the reader's imagination; it annoys me when a science fiction book has a huge glossary in the back. The author should provide enough details that the reader has a solid understanding of his world, but not so specific that were bombarded with meaningless details we have to look up. For this reason, I'm not so much a fan of "hard" sci-fi; I tend more towards "literary" sci-fi (PKD, some of Kazuo Ishiguro's work) or science fantasy. The exception is cyberpunk; I loves me some dreary, noir-laced computer fiction. I tend to like my sci-fi in short story form; Night Shade Books tends to publish really kickass reprint anthologies centered around specific subgenres.

Personal faves:

Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories, and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
A Scanner Darkly, Ubik, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Infoquake, Multireal, and Geosynchron (Jump 225 Trilogy) by David Louis Edelman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Windup Girl and Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
A Talent for War, Polaris, Seeker, The Devil's Eye, Echo, and Firebird (Alex Benedict Novels) by Jack McDevitt
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe, and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Trilogy) by Douglas Adams
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories (anthology) edited by John Joseph Adams
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (anthology) edited by John Joseph Adams
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (annual anthology series) edited by Jonathan Strahan

And for a great book that's about sci-fi and fantasy (one of my favorite books of all time, and it won both the Hugo and the Nebula):

Among Others by Jo Walton

Reposted from a Facebook note of mine.

Not sure whether this belongs here, as it takes on both the film and the book at once. I thought that since we discuss books elsewhere on this forum, it could be risked, but if not, feel free to delete it, Teague. smile

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc517/darthpraxus/lesmissidebyside_zpsa2e06f8e.jpg

It's known as one of the biggest big books of all time, coming in at 1,900 pages in the original French and 530,982 words in one of the many English translations. The world-renowned musical adaptation, which has been seen by an estimated one billion people, is by necessity a condensed version of the tale, but retains its epic scope and humane spirit. I am, of course, speaking of Les Misérables, Victor Hugo's masterwork.

I saw the musical for the first time on New Year's Day 2013, by way of its film adaptation. My reaction was overwhelmingly positive, and I felt I had to read the book. In order to prepare myself for the undertaking, I read the other of Hugo's twin masterpieces, Notre-Dame de Paris or simply The Hunchback of Notre Dame, first. It was enjoyable, but it also had me worried. Hunchback is, quite simply, a melodrama—an excellently told one, and far above the rest of the nineteenth century's Gothic tales, but a melodrama nevertheless. In fact, I honestly prefer the Disney film, and far prefer said film's Berlin stage adaptation, Der Glöckner von Notre Dame; the darkness of the story feels more bold and startling in the context of a Disney production, and the music remains Alan Menken's best ("Hellfire" in particular is semi-legendary for its dark, adult themes and choral power). My reaction to Hugo's youthful work made me apprehensive as to whether or not I would enjoy his magnum opus.

I needn't have worried.

In both forms, Les Misérables is sprawling, frustrating, and overly grandiose. Objectively, it is not a good film, and a horribly crafted novel. However, its massive flaws are, in a way, strengths, essential to the greatness of the work, and are in any event overcome by the essential emotion and humanity of the story. The following review will address both the novel and the 2012 film, comparing and contrasting the two and addressing their shared and separate strengths and weaknesses.

The core story of both the novel and its musical adaptation follows the plight of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who spent nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread in order to feed his family. Bitter and spiteful, Valjean finds himself at a crossroads after an incredible act of mercy on the part of the aged Bishop of Digne saves him from being arrested yet again. Determined to change his ways and become a force of good, Valjean breaks his parole and begins a new life as the mayor of a small French town. Under his leadership, the town begins to prosper, and it would appear that he has escaped his former life for good. However, he is forced to reveal himself when another is arrested in his place, and finds himself on the run again, pursued by the rigid Inspector Javert. This time, Valjean is not alone in fleeing the law—he has taken it upon himself to protect Cosette, the child of the prostitute Fantine, after rescuing her from the scheming innkeepers who have raised her. Years pass, and Cosette becomes a woman. She and Valjean are swept up in the July Revolution of 1832 when she finds herself in love with one of the republican insurgents, Marius Pontmercy, and as the conflict widens, Valjean may be unable to avoid a final reckoning with the law.

Both versions of this tale are behemoth in scope; however, the film is a pale shade of the novel in terms of length. Hugo conducted thirty years of extensive research before completing the work considered to be his masterpiece. A massive egotist, he refused to allow editors to cut any material from his book, and this results in a novel that is among the most horribly structured known to man. The first hundred pages of the story do not deal with Valjean at all, instead choosing to give us an intimate portrait of his savior, the Bishop of Digne, who is not seen again after his act of mercy toward the ex-convict. Seventy pages are spent discussing the Battle of Waterloo, and only the final three of these have anything to do with the rest of the book. Chapter after chapter is spent on the obscure rites of a group of nuns and the morality of convents, twenty pages are devoted to the terminology of the Parisian argot street-speak. Within the novel's climax comes a twenty-page discourse on the history of the Paris sewers. These rambling lectures of Hugo's bring the story to a grinding halt time after time, and leave the reader understandably frustrated.

The film is much better in the regard of pacing; it removes by necessity all of Hugo's narrative side lectures, cuts out subplots that take up large chunks of the story, condenses the central plotline, and squeezes scenes that took up numerous chapters into four-minute songs. The resulting runtime of two hours and forty minutes is positively brisk compared to Hugo's narrative. As a result, the film is much more breathless and exciting at parts, and much easier to follow without one's eyes glazing over.

However, better pacing is not always a good thing. In some crucial instances, the film's abridgments hurt the plausibility of the story. The most egregious example of this is Fantine's descent into prostitution in order to save her daughter. In the novel, chapter after chapter details the degrading process Fantine goes through as she loses her beauty, her hair, her teeth, and her dignity, and the time frame is several years. The film condenses the entire process into one evening, and while it is still heartwrenching, it is not believable. In most other instances, it is not the story that is hurt but the characters. "Who Am I?", the song that Jean Valjean sings as he debates whether or not to turn himself in and save the man arrested in his place, utterly fails to convey the agonizing dread and indecision that plague Valjean in the novel; over twenty pages are spent inside his mind as he pleads with his conscience to find another way. What follows is one of the novel's most exciting passages, in which Valjean desperately rides to the impostor's trial, encountering obstacle after obstacle and still wrestling with his fear and indecision even as he enters the courtroom. This sequence leaves the reader utterly breathless with suspense, and as agonized as Valjean over his decision.

The film cuts it entirely.

As a result, the film's Valjean is not as great a man. The Valjean of both works is, in the end, a saint; but the novel's Valjean is a tortured, imperfect saint, while the film's nearly never wavers in his good deeds. This loss of character development is also keenly felt in the relationship between Valjean and Cosette; we can see their love for each other unfolding in the novel, and it is a love that will warm the coldest of hearts. The film never shows us how the two came to love one another as father and daughter, and we feel that loss.

Even the cutting of Hugo's narrative rambling is sometimes a loss, in a way. Yes, the history of the Bishop is entirely unnecessary, and the film was right to remove it. It is also beautiful, and allows us to appreciate the good man so much more. Yes, the recounting of the Battle of Waterloo is unforgivable. It is also a magnificent piece of writing. And really, it is these diversions that make the book what it is; part of its greatness is its immense scope, a scope that does not care about plot or narrative but instead gives us a picture of what France was during the time of Les Misérables.

The core characters of Valjean and Fantine are essentially the same in the novel and the musical. However, nearly all of the rest of the cast is altered, in ways both major and minor, in the musical, usually for the better. Cosette's character is sacrificed for the rest of the performers, and as a result her and Marius' love story loses plausibility and emotion (we do not care in the novel, either, really, but at least they fall for each other over a period of weeks instead of the instant their eyes meet). However, Marius' character is bettered by this sacrifice; the film chooses to focus on his role in the July Revolution, which makes his arc more believable and makes us care for him more. In the book, he literally wanders into the conflict due to his heartbreak over Cosette; he has no personal stake in the matter. The film's Marius is one with purpose. Eponine, the girl who loves Marius but is not loved by him in return, is also improved; in the novel she comes off as slightly creepy and obsessed, and has no real reason for caring for him. In the film, she is established as his best friend. (The novel does, however, have the more tear-jerking dying words for her, after she has saved her love's life at the cost of her own during a battle: "You know something, Monsieur Marius? I think I was a little bit in love with you.") The Thénardiers, the innkeepers who raised Cosette as a servant, are complete monsters in the book. They become the film's comic relief, and while they do not really fit the story anymore that way, it allows us to like them instead of being outright horrified by their actions.

The most dramatic character changes in the musical belong to Javert, and they are most welcome. In the novel, he does not show up until far into the first act, and appears sporadically from there until the end. The reader never really gets a sense of his personal stake in the hunt for Valjean. In the film, he is there from the beginning, where he is the prison guard that releases Valjean to his parole; he becomes obsessed with apprehending the ex-convict after he reappears. His strict adherence to the law is also given added depth in the musical, as he believes it will grant him salvation from God.

In both versions of the story, we are utterly moved by the characters. It is different for each person—some may prefer Valjean, some Fantine, some Eponine—but everyone will find a character to latch onto and invest in. It is here that Hugo's improvement as a writer from Hunchback can most clearly be seen. Hugo was a youthful man when he wrote Hunchback, and it shows. The characters have little depth, and the narrator's views on life and love are sometimes charming in their naivete. In Les Misérables, we can see how much he had matured as a writer in the thirty years since he had penned his famous melodrama. Les Misérables is an uncomfortable look at the dark places of Hugo's world. The poverty, indignity, and hopelessness of that age's poor are conveyed in all their tragedy and brutality. The novel's title is a microcosm of this—the reason the English translation retains the French title is because English fails to convey the French's nuance and layers of meaning; the title can be translated as "The Miserable Ones", "The Wretched Poor", "The Victims", "The Hungry Poor", "The Underdogs", etc. The musical also accomplishes this portrayal, in Anne Hathaway's stunning, bitter soliloquy "I Dreamed a Dream" (the only time I have ever cried during a film). However, while Hugo had lost his naivete concerning the world, he had not lost his essential faith in God, love, and humanity, and this is crucial to the emotional impact of both the novel and the musical. Yes, the world is ugly and cruel, and the poor and downtrodden suffer in ways beyond imagining, they say. But we do not have to give in. There is always hope, there is always redemption. We all have the capability of choosing to act as Jean Valjean did, to escape our bitterness and despair and embrace love and God. We need not submit to our oppressors; there will always be those like Marius and Enjolras to rise against tyranny, and while they may fail, their spirit lives and fights on ("Do You Hear the People Sing?"). Love, in the end, will conquer all; humanity will free itself, and mankind shall be redeemed. Hugo's magnum opus is still a melodrama; any work written in the nineteenth century really cannot help but be classified as such. However, it also transcends melodrama, becoming something much more.

In the end, Les Misérables is indeed the greatest story ever told. Not the best, and not my favorite, but the greatest. Within it is contained history, suspense, emotion, a look at humanity in both its best and worst states—an epic, sprawling (for better or for worse), and yet still intimate portrait of the world that Hugo lived in. Nothing written before or since can ever convey the sense of scope that Hugo's novel has. The musical lacks this behemoth nature, but retains the book's themes and characters and in many cases betters them, and its music has become a phenomenon of its own.

In the end, Hugo himself summed his masterpiece up best, in his 1862 preface to the novel:

So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century—the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.

Postscript: For anyone out there interested in reading the book, I'd recommend the Norman Denny translation; it's the best blend of readability and accuracy of the many available, and moves two of the longer digressive sections into appendixes.

1,090

(23 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Not sure how "great" it is in the grand scheme of things, but I like the acting for the most part and really like the cinematography, the no-music interludes are a nice touch, and the song itself is spectacular. The opening is...weird.

1,091

(36 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I'll probably get some flack for my #4 and #1 picks.

5. Zoso by Led Zeppelin
Also known as Runes, The Fourth Album, Four Symbols, or Led Zeppelin IV. This is my favorite fantasy-rock album, as well as an awesome hard-rock album because, apart from two songs ("The Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven"), it's really actually not very fantasy in tone. It's the quintessential Zeppelin album because it perfectly represents the dichotomy of their two styles—heavy, sex-driven blues-rock and mystical folk tunes. "Stairway to Heaven" is, of course, the album's highlight—just as the album is a microcosm of Zeppelin, "Stairway" is a microcosm of the album, transitioning from mystical and haunting to shredding guitar and wailing vocals.
Top Three Songs:
3. "Black Dog"
2. "The Battle of Evermore"
1. "Stairway to Heaven"

4. The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance
Yes, their first two albums were pretty standard emo wailing, but My Chemical Romance did something stunning with The Black Parade. It's all over the place in terms of sound—shades of Pink Floyd and Queen at their most operatic mixed with touches of metal, blues, and gentle acoustic ballads—but all the songs are held together by the album's concept: a cancer patient who dies and reflects on his previous life as he struggles to find his place in the afterlife (the titular Black Parade). The story is shaky, but the lyrics from song to song stand on their own, and the music is deftly orchestrated and produced. It's called "The Sgt. Pepper of Screamo" for a reason.
Top Three Songs:
3. "Mama"
2. "Teenagers"
1. "The End./Dead!"

3. Abbey Road by The Beatles
The most prized of my vinyl collection. Apart from Sgt. Pepper, this album has the distinction of being the most tightly produced of the Fab Four's later work. The band largely abandoned the psychedelic sound that had dominated Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and much of The White Album for this record, and focused instead on producing the best long goodbye possible for their fans. The result is an occasionally funny, often bittersweet collection of songs dominated by the b-side's "medley" (largely the result of production trickery by George Martin). Sgt. Pepper and Revolver are without a question the greatest of the Beatles' albums, but this is their best, in my opinion.
Top Three Songs:
3. "Here Comes the Sun"
2. "Come Together"
1. "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End"

2. Who's Next by The Who
At their worst, The Who were overly pretentious, bloated, and dominated by guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend's obsession with producing "great" music. At their best, however, they remain untouched, and this album is without a doubt the best of their best. Rescued from the ashes of Townshend's failed sci-fi rock opera Lifehouse, Who's Next is the album that is most representative of what made The Who great. The nine songs present flow perfectly from one to the next, from the jaw-droppingly catchy opening keyboard riff of "Baba O'Riley" to the last power chords of "Won't Get Fooled Again". Lead singer Roger Daltrey's vocals are incredibly strong, and counterpointed nicely by Townshend's vulnerable soprano. Townshend's synthesizer work remains some of the only examples of synths that avoid sounding dated; he was a master of the technology in its early days, keeping its use minimal but highly effective. Drummer Keith Moon is sloppy, all over the place, and incredibly fun to listen to, and John Entwistle's bass lines are masterful. Put together this astonishing musicianship with lyrics that range from the truly thoughtful to the wryly hilarious, and you have the best album to come out of the 1970s.
Top Three Songs:
3. "The Song Is Over"
2. "Getting in Tune"
1. "Baba O'Riley"

1. American Idiot by Green Day
I cannot call this the greatest album of all time (though it is, I feel, a great album, the epochal one of the first decade of the 2000s). It is, however, my eternal favorite, an album I genuinely love. It was the first rock album I ever listened to, and the one that really opened my eyes to music. In addition, I connected to it on an immensely personal level; the lyrics, which came before singer/songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong's descent into word salad territory, let fourteen-year-old me know I wasn't alone in feeling the emotions I felt. Its story—angry, apathetic teenage rebel called the Jesus of Suburbia runs away from home, meets an enabler in the form of St. Jimmy and a girlfriend in the form of Whatsername, and then has everything fall apart—is a fairly standard one, but told magnificently well through Armstrong's lyrics, which save for the occasional stumble are clear and affecting. The album's music is wildly varied, ranging from arena rock to punk fare to country-western ditties to acoustic ballads, and fueled by Armstrong's aggressive guitar playing and Tre Cool's manic drumming. The standout track, "Jesus of Suburbia", is a ten-minute mini-opera in the tradition of The Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away", and remains the band's single best song. Some remember the album as the point where Green Day "sold out". I prefer to think of it as their greatest work, an album that will stand the test of time as one of the great records of the early 2000s.
Top Three Songs:
3. "Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
2. "Are We the Waiting/St. Jimmy"
1. "Jesus of Suburbia"

1,092

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Despicable.

Trailer for this concept.

1,094

(473 replies, posted in Episodes)

If this rumor is true, I'm ticked. We don't NEED a whole film to explain Yoda's backstory! The whole point is that he's a mysterious, powerful figure and no one knows where he came from!

1,095

(108 replies, posted in Off Topic)

My one hopeless, teenage, wangst-filled attempt to write a pop-punk song on unrequited love. I cringe at the mere memory.

If you could live in any film genre, which would you choose? Be as specific or as nebulous as you like.

1,096

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Teague wrote:

Yeah, wasn't huge into Cell, and Under the Dome... meandered. I was *so into* the concept of Under the Dome, but, eh. I couldn't stick with it after the 2,000th page.

I personally loves me some meandering King. My problem with Dome is the ending. It's like The Stand; the first 900 pages are all incredibly suspenseful buildupbuildupbuildup, and the ending just...happens. It's not quite a deus ex machina, but it feels cheap. There's also a two pieces of magic problem;

Spoilers for Under the Dome Show
we have aliens who created the dome, and also dead people can speak to dogs.

Of course, when you think about it, all of King's stuff takes place in the same continuity, so there's really several dozen pieces of magic in his universe, but still.

I still love the book, though, as it was the first King novel I ever read.

1,097

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Dorkman wrote:

Next up, I think, will be my reconciliation with Stephen King through 11/22/63, though I haven't decided if that will be a read or a listen. That'll warm me up for The Wind Through the Keyhole.

11/22/63 is great; the narrator is a bit bland compared to some of King's other first-person characters, but the book is genuinely suspenseful, moving and beautiful at parts, and actually avoids the anticlimactic, rushed ending that so many of King's other doorstoppers have. I wouldn't bother with Keyhole; the parts with Roland and his ka-tet are horrible, the characters acting like caricatures of themselves. The meat of the book, which has nothing to do with the rest of the Dark Tower story and features none of the main characters, isn't bad, necessarily, but entirely fluff and not at all riveting or even that engaging.

1,098

(255 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Just finished Summer of '42. Thanks so much for the recommendation, Trey. It was a fantastic book, hilarious, and it's a crime that it's now out of print. Apparently this is true for all of Raucher's novels, because he had a falling-out with his publisher, who then yanked the books from print.

Also, did some digging and found out that the film adaptation of the book is one of the most profitable films of all time, earning back more than thirty-two times its budget.

Didn't mention this at the time I read it, but recently finished The Fault in Our Stars. I was blown away. A young adult novel that's...actually well-written, with interesting characters and great dialogue, that (mostly) doesn't resort to tired clichès?

1,099

(23 replies, posted in Off Topic)

The one time I've really hated it was when it was used in Return of the King. Really destroyed the tension for me.

1,100

(473 replies, posted in Episodes)

bullet3 wrote:

Regarding the score, if we're lucky John Williams will still be with us and willing to finish out the new trilogy. If we're going to have all the original cast back, I feel like we need that continuity of bringing back Williams. If not, the writing is on the wall that it'll be Giachinno. My dislike for his Star Trek score is well documented, but if it has to be him, my hope is that JJ being a big fan of the originals can convince Giachinno to not fuck with the original feel and write something that feels similar in style. If he pulls another Star Trek though, I'm officially done with the guy.

I honestly hope it's not Williams; the man hasn't done anything remotely memorable in the last decade or so save "Hedwig's Theme". I'm personally really hoping Giacchino does do it. I love his music for the Trek reboot; it's not the most epic stuff out there, but it's fun and adventurous and really fit the movie.