An eye-catching, enjoyable, and informative celebration of iconic SF and fantasy movie scores.
A sequel catalogs SF and fantasy film soundtracks on vinyl.
As a follow-up to their previous book, Blood on Black Wax (2019), which spotlighted iconic horror movie soundtracks, Lupton and Szpirglas turn their attentions to the SF and fantasy genres. Reflecting on the significance of SF film scores in his introduction, Lupton writes: “Star Trek, Back to the Future, The Twilight Zone, Terminator? These are some of the greatest music themes ever written, and for many of us, the soundtrack to our nerdy youths.” The work is divided into nine chapters: epic SF, adult fantasy, dark dystopia, action/adventure, pop, family features, comic book/superheroes, television, and unidentified objects. Each chapter features a series of color reproductions of key album covers, such as Star Wars and Blade Runner, followed by detailed commentary. Focusing predominantly on the 1970s through the ’90s to maintain an emphasis on vinyl, the period covered ends in 1999, so newer classics such as the Harry Potter films are not included. The volume also provides revealing interviews with luminaries like the composer Christopher Young, who scored Hellraiser. The design of the book is colorful and fittingly retro, and the album covers themselves are a joy to peruse collectively. The authors offer consistently insightful commentary from a musician’s perspective. Describing the score of the 1979 movie Starcrash by John Barry, they note: “The composer also plays around with some interesting rhythmic techniques, breaking down the 4/4 time signature into more unusual chunks of 3-3-2 (such as the galloping ‘Space War’ cue).” The comprehensive study also delivers thoughtful recommendations that reflect the authors’ depth of knowledge. Regarding Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Supergirl, they tell readers: “To hear the soundtrack presented as it sounds in the film, with the synths, try the 1993 expanded re-release CD…which features music such as Goldsmith’s eerie choral work for the Phantom Zone sequences.” But the descriptive scope can become limited and repetitive at times: “Sci-fi became sexy again”; “as much a sexy sci-fi flick as it is horror.” This does not largely detract from a painstakingly compiled catalog packed with meticulous details that will prove a fun nostalgia trip for fans of the genres.
An eye-catching, enjoyable, and informative celebration of iconic SF and fantasy movie scores. (album cover photography)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-948221-14-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: 1984 Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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