bellcurve

It's an ugly baby.

I'm watching some old episodes of Port Charles while I recover from some minor surgery and it's just hard to believe all of this was ten years ago. These episodes, aside from a few of the pop culture references, still hold up well.

Can't stress again how much I appreciated and enjoyed Karen Harris' run on this show(March-December 2000). The right blend of humor, realism, and gripping drama.

I'm not watching them all in order, rather just select episodes here and there. It's amazing how, despite the fact that GH was going for this arc-style storytelling even back then, they still never let four characters just swallow the show whole(as Caleb/Livvie/Alison/Rafe did during the arcs).

Even ten years later, I hate Felicia "Soap Producer Extraordinaire" Behr and Angela "Shop The Soaps" Shapiro for f^cking over this show.

I didn't know Terri Guaneri was a producer on the show. She was at AW a few years later wasn't she, the year they were disqualified from a Best Writing nomination?

And you mean AW was disqualified from a Best Writing Nod? Do tell.

God, the flamenco dancing opening was the absolute worst.

Does anyone know if the Flood Episodes of Search are on YouTube or are available for Trade?

Well thats your opinion. There are others who would like the 80's cues - no need to be so rude.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier, I forgot about this thread, lol.

There were some scores I liked but I think there were too many from the last 5 years. I wish it would have had some more scores from the 90s and early 2000s.

The guy I've been talking to for the last six months is Ric Kohlbeck, he was the album sequencer. You can see his name in the soundtracks credit. I told him that I had hoped for more scores from the 90s and early 2000s and I also said that on CD 2 the tracks were cut short and melted together, I wish they would have kept the cues in their original full length.

Here is what he told me

So at first I was disapointed about the soundtrack but now I think it's alright. Like he said they wanted to stay pretty current but he also made it sound like there might be another soundtrack with more scores from the 90s.

Thanks for the info Sindacco!

I hope it isn't lip service and that they do more 90's/Reilly Era I stuff.

Eff the stuff from Days in the 80's.

Restless Dreamer by Boy Meets Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGlE1Q6L0c

Love of Life never had an opportunity to go into syndication. This idea is one of a myriad of mistakes in Christopher Schemring's book. The truth is Love of Life was canceled so quickly, syndication was out of the question. When CBS announced the cancellation, the series literally had a couple of weeks to tape the final episodes. There simply wasn't time to work out a syndication deal, and considering the low viewing figures, I doubt it would have been successful. The Edge of Night and The Secret Storm were the two daytime soaps with the best likelihood of going in first-run syndication, though sadly, those deals also never reached fruition.

BTW, does anyone know where I can see that final episode? Or see any episodes from like 1978-1980?

Yeah i thought it was a good mix of uptempo tracks (produced by C+C Music Factory of course just before David Cole died of AIDS) and ballads. Love The Wind and Till The End of Time too.

Till the End of Time was beautiful. Probably my favorite of all her ballads. That was slated to be the next single, but they shelved it for the MTV Unplugged Disc.

My all time fave Mariah ballad. Gorgeous.

Emotions(the album) was so underrated. A bit overproduced, but a victim of an overeager Mariah and poor single choices.

Can't Let Go (Edit). Have always preferred this to the album version, which had the high note at the end. Without that, it makes the song more haunting and dramatic.

We'll have to wait until the next real album to see if Gaga has strategically reinvented her image and music. The Fame Monster, though an EP, was basically a continuation of the same sound and style of The Fame.

All you have to do is look at Mariah Carey as the perfect example of staying stagnant. She, honestly, has only had one major reinvention. There was pre-Butterfly(adult contemporary/ballad singer) and post-Butterfly(R&B, trashy rap girlfriend). Mariah isn't creative enough to step outside of her comfort zone and level to experiment with other styles of music to remain relevant, which is fine if that works for her. Now I still LOVE Mariah(Mimi completely destroyed her for me, IMO), but when you look at her as an artist in the grand scheme of things, she's been doing the exact same thing for well over ten years. That Butterfly sh*t with the musical hooks and stylings that sound so late 1997.

I think if GaGa relies on her same bag of tricks to stay relevant, it may work for the first single out of the gate, but the mainstream(along with these payola stations) will get sick of pimping her songs and move onto the next undiscovered sensation.

Since some of you were talking about it.....

Lady Gaga: A New Madonna Making Pop History

Wow, I'm amazed that "her debut album is still No. 7 after 72 weeks."

But I don't think putting on a bunch of weird outfits qualifies as a "reinvention." Madonna reinvents herself, but she adopts a new style every album. We've only had one album and an extension LP from GaGa. That's not enough to decide whether she will have staying power or whether she will be the next Madonna.

The real test comes with her next album. She's gonna have to realize that she can't rely on the same tricks she did with the first, nor can she rely on comparisons to Madonna to sell records. She's gonna have to do more than make Poker Face 2.0, make glossy music videos, and wear weird outfits and accessories. And she's gonna have to accept that her second album may not be as good as her first and, instead of breaking down, just tour with it and work on the next one.

Madonna had staying power because she(unlike other popstresses of the 80's) never gave up. If an album or movie didn't quite work out, she focused on the next effort.

Night Music by Simple Minds

I got the DAYS Soundtrack today, much sooner than what they first said. I just started to listen to it so I'll be back later with more comments.

I never quite got your thoughts on that DAYS soundtrack. Care to let me know what you think?

I HATED Kevin & Eve together.

Racecar Bed Sex. *puke*

I liked the title song, Love Profusion and Hollywood. Strings here and there and that's about it.

Who are the haters? Eric & Alvin?

LOL. I just saw your puke emoticon about Madonna doing acoustic guitar and lyrics for the next album and assumed you were hating.

F*ck all you American Life haters, BTW. That album was great!

This video was just all over the place and there really wasn't any consistency. It was basically, "How much weird, random sh*t can we put in the video?"

There should have been an actual story and way more choreography in this, especially for a song that has such a fierce hook and beat.

I was especially disappointed because I was totally looking forward to the Telephone video.

Oh, please make it be true! And, if it is, that they at least put all those wonderful, classic scores in there... saddening, business, intrigue... all of them!

I definitely like the IDEA behind the DAYS CD, even if I am not too fond of the execution of it.

They will likely focus on the last ten years or so, so I wouldn't expect any of those sweeping cues and strings from the 80's, sadly.

Y&R had some good stuff, music-wise, in the last decade(save for the college rock sh!t Latham's era bestowed upon Allocco and Kurtz). The cues they used in Paris and beyond were good and some of their recent intrigue cues, which are so un-Y&R, but still good in its own right(the one I like is often used during Patty's scenes).

To be fair the "meagmix" of tracks may have been done too because those cues are so very short they thought it would be a weird listening experience (on the show they probably loop them). When I was most into anime I collectd the tv soundtracks for my fave series (in Japan they release soundtracks to EVERYTHING) and often they'd do this with the shorter tracks--when it's more a mood track or something than something with an actual full melody.

I'd rather have a full minute of a loop of a track than just one thing that bleeds into the next. Thank goodness they didn't do that with the first set of cues.

I should also let you guys know that I e-mailed LaLaLand asking them about who picked the cues and Corday and Nelson did and that they wanted to focus more on the last ten years of the show, which is why we didn't get alot of those 93-97 cues we loved so much.

When asked if they planned on going to other composers, the reply was, "The Young and the Restless" might be next.

Aside from the coffee rock sh*t that Latham bestowed upon us, I'd really look forward to a two disc of those scores. Some of the more recent ones, while they may not sound Y&R-esque, are still pretty good.

I'd love to hear an extended cut of the sad cue playing at the end of this clip with Nick/Sharon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4goF4rkZDA

I downloaded the previews/samples and I recognized all of them.

Who Is John Black?:

Played in early 2008 when they found out that John was alive.

First Kiss:

I recognize it but I can't say for sure when it used to play.

Theme for a Princess:

Played during the Princess Gina Storyline in 1999.

Hitman:

Played back in 2005 during the Stan/Iraq story but I think I also heard it in a recent episode, it was either in Dec 09 or Jan 10.

Kiss of Death:

This one is really weird because I recognized two different cues that blended together in this one. One of the cues played during the Meteor Shower in 2002 and the other one with the female "Aaaahaaaaaaa" is from the Princess Gina Storyline.

Something is Going On:

This is a pretty new one, I would say it started sometime last year.

About the CD insert you posted, this means that on some of the tracks we won't hear the whole score? Nope, I don't like it.

And I have to comment on the last part: "This is meant to be like this, for it enables you to appreciate the composers craft at creating atmosphere and bring you into the storylines created by the names of the tracks."

I say bullshit on that. I would've appreciated if they didn't mix it like that, it actually ruins the atmosphere. Of course I haven't heard it yet but to me it feels like that. But when I get the CD I will listen to all of it and then judge. I just got an e-mail from Amazon, the delivery date is March 26.

You will definitely love the first CD. It doesn't have that bleeding from one segment to the next thing going on.

I also like a track titled "Skyline," but that's the Watercolors XM fan in me. It sounded like they tried to avoid as many porn-y sounding cues as possible. And as I mentioned earlier, I love "Innocence." Connects me to an era of my growing up watching DAYS and a time when soaps were just so fun, magical, and engaging. As much [!@#$%^&*] as I give DAYS and as much as I laugh about it now, I really loved watching it back then.

A couple of previews/samples are now on the LaLaLand website.

http://lalalandrecords.com/DOOL.html

And here's what the CD insert says about the second disc:

"This disc has been carefully mixed and assembled to convey six mini storylunes. You will notice that most of the tracks have been blended with the track before or after. For instance, if you skip to track 3 "Execution," you will notice the track has already started. This is meant to be like this, for it enables you to appreciate the composers craft at creating atmosphere and bring you into the storylines created by the names of the tracks.

The storyline tracks are denoted below:

1-6: Sami's Revenge/Stan

7: Lethal Injection of Stefano DiMera.

8-11: Stalking and Manipulation of EJ DiMera.

14-15: Stefano and Colleen Brady

16-22: The Morgue

23-27: Searching for the Salem Stalker

29-33: Kidnapping and Escape"

Oh okey. But is "Innocence" the only one from Reilly 1 era? Because on the 1998 soundtrack they left out alot of my favorite cues so I was hoping they would be on this one.

I'm afraid so. And I was a faithful viewer from about 1995-1999. I would have known for sure if anything else from Reilly I was there. But maybe you have a more keen ear. Certainly not the cue I wanted(the one they used to play during Bo/Hope scenes in the 90's).

When I get home, I'll let you know everything else they said regarding the second CD.