EricMontreal22

I have to admit nearly all I know about this is brief mentions in the New Yorker, and one article about the season in general--I had no idea he had a blog, would make a fascinating read. Had Slatkin never conducted La Trav before though? I *know* if you hadn't in years, and are working with a new group and production it's almost like conducting another show--but I still would have expected him to be more familiar with the opera. Then again I know his career is hardly built around being an opera conductor so I guess he wouldn't necesarily have experience with all the rep warhorses.

The cast was difficult and miscast, but I'm curious--how did the *orchestra* sabotage him? Certainly Ghosts of Versailles is a vastly different opera in terms of music and tone (I actually don't know it, just know about it) than Trav... LOL

Well that La Traviata production sounds awful--though I respect the new Met director for trying these new productions (and I'm glad he's kept a few of the old Zefirelli warhorses, etc)

Summertime was almost ruined for me by the American Idol takes on it (where you almost lose Gershwin's gorgeous melody! What's the point?) and I've never liked Janis Joplin's admittedly iconic take. My fave version is from a 60s recording of Porgy and Bess I have. Even though Bess doesn't sing the song in the opera (it's a nameless citizen of Catfish Row at the opening if I remember right) Leontyne Price, who was Bess, got to sing it on the recording. But I admit, Kathleen Battle's less agressive take on the song, which I hadn't heard till you posted, is gorgeous too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbhy3m4gFic

So now we have two songs from the Scissor Sisters' new album--which they promised would be "dark dance/disco" and a return to their unapologetically gay and sexual roots, like Electrobix their first single (Jake Shears actually admitted that their last album, Ta Dah, left their image neutered--I liked lots of that recor but I would have to agree, and I'm glad they've dropped the tinkly honky tonk piano/falsetto/Mika stuff which got old fast). Stuart Price produced, while doing the final mix for Kylie, and I admit I'm a bit mixed on the single. It's a good, solid, Summer song, but it doesn't really have any of that quirk or surprise factor I'd want from a Scissor Sisters track--though thank God Shears kept to his no falsetto promise. The biggest complaint for me is it could be The Killers--I love The Killers, but it's almost like SS asked Stuart Price to make a song similar to Human. Still, the song has stuck in my head and it sounds like a good opening to the album (which is meant to get progressively darker with each track). If the album is as dark and dancey as they claim, it was also probably smart to release a single that isn't so much as the lead, to still cash in on some of their Soccer Mom audience that made their last album such a huge UK hit. Also love that they used another Mapplethorpe image for the single, in keeping with their theme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Ss94ny0fo And of course the far more interesting album track Invisible Light has already been leaked by them, and I think it's pretty awesome (equal parts dark 70s Italian synth disco--think Fear or Walk the Night with 80s Trevor Horn style work like Frankie Goes to Hollywood--plus a Thriller-esque spoken bit by Ian McKellan and a killer final build).

This has been a massive flop for Xenomania and their new label, but I still love the song even if the lyrics make no sense--gorgeous production (reminiscent of their best Girls Aloud track, the massive hit Call the Shots)

Yeah their thirtysomething boxes have a number of commentaries, etc. Their Peyton Place of course has none (and apparently it's one of their most requested titles to be continued but the company that owns PP isn't happy with their sales, even though Shout Factory is. GRRRRR I don't get why companies aren't happy when they could make SOME money instead of none.)

Of course I meant Shout Factory not Box lol

Season 3 was when it went full on serial, isn't it? I hope Season 2 did decently, I've heard season one underperformed as well (but wouldn't that make the show ideal for someone like SHOUTBox to pick up?) Ann Marcus became one of the main writers with season 3, didn't she?

Why can't you start at the very beginning? Season 1 goes for VERY VERY cheap (amazon marketplace has new copies sometimes going for 5 bucks). I'm desperate to see more--the first half of Season 2 did lose me a bit (and as much as I love Broadway, and even have Michele Lee on CD for the cast album of Seesaw that performance episode was cringe worthy) but by the end I was fully hooked. I wish there was some way to track down the later seasons (the rumour is they may come out now when Dallas is done--which should be... a year or so?)

So Pratt created/Show Ran Models Inc before he was EP at Melrose, right?

Agreed, he's the best thing to happen to this show since the pilot.

Oh I knew about the remix album--it doesn't count as a reissue IMHO.

Gaga's reissuing Fame Monster again?

The thing is. MIA isn't mainstream the way GAGA is. This is why Gaga is in some ways like Madonna--she takes a tiny bit of underground culture, adds it to the mainstream status quo and forces an image over it--POP HIT! Of course MIA doesn't have the same success--she never will. They're not really comparable.

I've caught a few (thankfully for some reason they play in Canada--most Minisodes are only accepted in the USA) though I'm trying not to spoil it for myself. Then again I've seen a lot of the Quentin Collins inital storyline already (big David Selby fan/crush here), but otherwise not much at all (I saw one of the movies, I think the first one, on TCM a while back--I wonder why they're not on DVD)--none of the major Barnabus stuff. Currently on episode 29 of the Beginnign eps though and enjoying it, but can't wait for the supernatural stuff to start up, I admit.

I see that my hated James Lipton wrote for a time on this show too. Wow, and people are shocked when current "soap killers" are rehired over and over again on other soaps--Lipton I think still must win the prize for most disastrous headwriting regimes. What confuses me is the comment about how the show seemed like this "dirty little show" next to the family soap One Life to Live against it, etc. Why that confuses me is Peyton Place, for all its controversy, has a strong sense of community... Maybe the daytime version was never able to do this?

I'm still only in the 70s--took a break to catch up with Dark Shadows (and well, with my life) but I'm eager to get back to it. I didn't read your spoilers, bu don't worry about spreading negativity--from what I did read, I can agree with you. That said, I find nearly every episode hypnotic (maybe I'll find some later episodes more of a chore to get through) and I am impressed with how good the dialogue, acting and directing is for a twice weekly drama that from everything I read was cranked out (yes an hour--later an hour and a half a week was less than the 30 minute saily soaps at the time, but filming them on film, not video, and everything involved apparently made the schedueal least as grueling as the usual soap. It sounds like you're into the last year, which I know many found hard going (the loss of so many familiar faces, the fact that suddenly the once controversial show was starting to feel old fashioned considering how quickly America came of age between 1964 and 68-69, etc). I believe they made some attempts to be more "relevant" but without spoiling anything for myself, it doesn't sound like they really worked... It's GREAT to see another fan on here, and one who's seen so much. I have the full series but I expect, like you, it will take some years to get through it--I seem to go through marathon spurts. But I look forward to it!

Nevermind, their publisher still has it apparently--I guess it's the full original bible from stuff we did see (though changes were made, Roger was meant to die) then past the stuff before changes. http://www.pompress.com/titles/dark/shadows.html

I'd love to read that--when I'm further in. I knew about the dream--Schemering said it came to Curtis when he was on a train from New England to New York and saw a young woman huddled next to the window looking nervous--and he then fell asleep. But most of the characters and other concepts were done when he gave that initial idea to Art Wallace. Dan Curtis loves to take credit for the show but it seems very little of it was actually his doing. I wonder if Agnes Nixon was a fan--she certainly was aware of the show and some of its stories from her comments in the 1987 Paley seminar when asked some questions and she brought it up (she also mentions how jealous she was that Dan Curtis saved ll isepisodes to video)--but thfact she also picked Gordon Russell to follow her on OLTL is curious. Edit: boo i see Shadows on the Wall goes for a huge amount http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=shadows+on+the+wall+art+wallace I was gonna order it. There was a major novel a fewyears back by a famous female author I believe that was meant to be a Dark Shadows novel but at the last minute, curiously all connections/names were changed. But for the life of me I can't reemmeber what it was...

Her dancing scene actually is like a really really badly done version of one of Betty's early dancing scenes at the teen hangout in Peyton! I can't help think they wanted to emulate it (and did so poorly). So far I have to admit I find Nancy/Carolyn kinda wasted, yet appealing. I'll give most of that credit to the actress. I'm still only at episode 10 though. I think Victoria is still on her second day at Collinswood, LOL.

I feel foolish, since in the episode I watched immediately after this post it was clear he was her blood uncle. Carl's right about the flirtation though--he gave her a morning kiss and she said "mm delicious" just this past episode. Amello, I have only seen some of the later episodes--about 30 of the Quentin Collins arc--I decided to start with the beginning. So far I don't really mind David but we've only gotten brief scenes with him. It's funny how much of it reminds of early peyton Place though in odd and less odd ways (well a far less finely filmed, directed, and acted Peyton Place anyway lol but it would be hard to have those superb production values on a 60s daytime soap). I wonder if any of that was deliberate. It's interesting that the headwriter of these episodes, Art Wallace, is credited by Agnes Nixon in All Her Children as being her story consultant on the first few years of AMC...

I recently started watching the "The Beginning" pre Barnabas episodes on DVD--and I have to say I love them, despite the reputation that they were boring and meandering. (I admit though I love all that Bronte Gothic romance stuff). One quick question--Carolyn basically proclaims how much she'd love to marry Roger in an early speech. Isn't Roger her uncle? Is he not her uncle by blood (maybe I'll find this out later)--or am I just reading too much into her speech and she just meant a man like her uncle? LOL

Awww we all need music in our lives, YRBB

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.