Under the Cherry Moon

See it



Hear it


Feel it


Live it


(See, hear, feel, live what? You ask?)

PRINCE





in his new motion picture,
Under the Cherry Moon
Feel the beat


Feel the heat




UNDER THE CHERRY MOON

The 1986 trailer made it look kind of exciting, possibly a worthy follow-up to Purple Rain.

And to think there was ever any "controversy" over his sexual orientation. And what's up with the flower petals, Jerome?
That scene does sort of call to mind another bathtub scene in a movie Purple Rain is often compared to, a film described as being the Citizen Kane of rock films:

Filmed in color, released in black and white, directed by Prince after original director Mary Lambert was fired, by Prince, before shooting due to "creative differences", Under the Cherry Moon isn't the greatest movie ever made. But it did produce a great soundtrack. I think Parade is the creative peak of Prince's experimental and psychedelic period (the phase I like the most). It has a real Magical Mystery Tour vibe going on, and that's good and bad--good music, bad (good lord!) movie. Oh, and for some strange reason, somebody made this quiz.

"Under the Cherry Moon"

Superman Returns soundtrack first listen

SoundtrackNet has "an exclusive first listen to the official motion picture score release of John Ottman's Superman Returns."

My favorite so far has to be Ottman's interpretation of the Superman: The Movie main theme. Sounds really good! I must admit I held my breath a little as the main theme segued into the classic love theme ("Can You Read My Mind", where, of course, the preview version ends), but Ottman and orchestra have pulled it off with aplomb. I guess it goes without saying, but there was always the chance they'd make it really cheesy or something. There's a fine line between poignant and corny.

Here's the original, John Williams version: Superman: The Movie main theme. He is a truly gifted man.

Perhaps you've not yet seen the trailer for Superman Returns:

Superman: The Movie
It's amazing the fundamentalist, far-right wing Christian, religious groups haven't ever jumped all over the whole concept of "Superman". For all I know, they have. The narration line "He sent us his only son" and so on in that Superman: The Movie trailer seems really almost blantantly baiting those people, from today's point of view.

via Ain't It Cool News

Fine arts

Please excuse or enjoy the following detour from the usual pop culture fare to something slightly other. I found myself thumbing through an old, 1,000-page, hardback textbook from an art history class I took (made it to class a few times) at U.T.

The Griffith Fine Arts Building, built on the campus (in Nacogdoches) of Stephen F. Austin State University in 1958:The building has some interesting reliefs:


Each of those is an example of high relief. There is also low, or bas, relief. And while those aren't bad for what one would imagine was possible in 1958 for a small, liberal arts/teaching university located deep in the piney woods of ultra-conservative East Texas, it might be embarrassing if people found them thousands of years from now. Witness what other civilizations have achieved:
Temple of Horus (Edfu, 237-212 B.C.)
Temple of Horus detail (Edfu, 237-212 B.C.)
Ashurnasirpal Hunting Lions (Nimrud, 875 B.C.)
Dying Lioness (Nineveh, 650 B.C.)
Hippopotamus Hunt (Saqqara, 2400 B.C.)
Dancing Siva (India, 6th century)
Subjects Bringing Gifts to the King (Persepolis, 500 B.C.)
Madonna and Child (LUCA DELLA ROBBIA, 1455-1460)
Diana of Fontainebleau (BENVENUTO CELLINI, 1543-1544)
Column of Trajan (APOLLODORUS, Rome, 113 A.D.)
Column of Trajan detail
Marcus Aurelius Sacrificing (Rome, 2nd century A.D.)
Christ in Majesty with Apostles (France, 1019-1020)
Upon viewing those, the Fine Arts Building reliefs begin to wither under closer inspection...

EXHIBIT A
the magic kingdom?
EXHIBIT B
I could have done that!
I didn't realize people knew about the Klingon language back before Star Trek's 1966 TV debut.
The markings on the background are a kind of relief called sunken, or hollow, that is hardly more than a scratching of the surface. I could have done the swoop up in the left corner and probably the faces in the upper right. I'm just saying.

Still, I like the whimsy, especially the little scene above the entryway:
Something about the flying goddess figure
reminds me of The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau (1897)

Maybe it's the mandolin: