Monday, December 24, 2012

The Hidden Fortress



Recently my husband and I were able to watch Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress during one of Hulu's “free” nights, and I found myself once again entranced by this delightful tale.


I've seen it perhaps 5 times in my life. The first time was in a revival theater, the Valley Art. I was around 19 years old, and the other people in the audience were mostly college students. As much as I liked seeing it on my 28-inch screen at home, it's a powerful experience on the big screen – so much so that, although the movie was filmed in black & white, I remember parts of it in color. Most of it was filmed at real, outdoor locations, but I suspect parts were filmed in a studio, on lovingly detailed sets. Cecil B. DeMille's got nothing on Kurosawa when it comes to gorgeous spectacle. Another thing that impresses me is the number of extras in the movie. It doesn't boast “a cast of thousands," but there are sometimes a few hundred people on the screen, yet the main characters never get lost in all that action.


The big star in the film is Toshiro Mifune, who plays the stoic samurai character, General Rokurota Makabe, with aplomb. When he wears a mustache and beard, he looks just like the paintings of samurai on silk screens, or like the masks in Japanese theater. He's wonderful, but he's made more so by the character who steals the movie: Princess Yuki. She is the reason I keep wanting to see this movie. She is extraordinarily beautiful, as you pretty much expect a princess to be, but it's actually her imperious-yet-socially-awkward personality that steals my heart. She is the only child of Lord Akizuki, and the sole survivor from an old and noble family. Because she had no brother, her father raised her to lead the clan. She is fearless and utterly imperial, well-trained in the art of giving orders that must be obeyed. These are traits that inspire devotion and unquestioning loyalty in the handful of servants that survived the massacre of her kin. She accepts this loyalty. But she is compassionate too – a trait she must wrestle with if she wants to re-establish her clan.


You might think Yuki and Rokurota are the glue that hold this movie together, but that distinction goes to a couple of viewpoint characters, the comical (but not always likeable) Tahei and Matashichi, a couple of peasants who went to war in order to get rich. This is not a scheme that works out for them, and things go from bad to worse in the first five minutes of the film. From that point forward, these two knuckleheads fall into one disaster after another. Their own greed and moral ambiguities drive them to keep making mistakes, but those are the traits Rokurota finds the most useful as he tricks them into helping him and Yuki move the gold that belongs to the shattered Clan Akizuki to safety.


Along the way, Yuki insists on rescuing a slave girl, an act of compassion that seems too soft-hearted at first, until this same girl manages to save the day several times. Can this band of misfits get the gold to safety so Yuki can rebuild her clan? The odds are stacked against them, but they still have some tricks up their sleeves.

Each time I watch this movie, I notice something different. This time it was the fact that the hidden fortress sits in the middle of an odd and other-worldly deposit of what appears to be volcanic tuff. I can't help wondering if this site survives intact in modern Japan. I hope it does. It was part of the magic of this movie, one detail in a long list of wondrous sights and sounds.


I love The Hidden Fortress. Princess Yuki has won my devotion, too.    

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Help The Artists You Love -- Give Them Good Reviews!


Here's another link for a wonderful sample from Michael Levy. He makes an excellent point in his announcement – good ratings and positive reviews are essential for artists, musicians, and writers these days. Don't feel that you have to wax poetic, just a few heartfelt sentences will do the job (along with lots of stars).


The Podcast History of the World - The Ancient Hebrews

I am pleased to announce that a selection of my music from my Biblical lyre-themed albums is to feature in Rob Monaco's free iTunes "Podcast History of the World" series on the ancient Hebrews! Here is a link to hear the first episode of this fascinating historical series:


I am delighted at the recent unique opportunities I have been involved with, in my efforts to get my music "out there", to the rest of the unsuspecting world! 

If any of you lovely subscribers to my mailing lists ever do decide to purchase any track from any of my albums on a major digital store such as iTunes, Amazon or CD Baby, do please, please also spare a few moments to rate/review the album from which the track comes from - as an unsigned artist, my precious little collection of album reviews are so far the best means of getting my "Musical Adventures in Time Travel" actually noticed & used in fabulous new opportunitues such as this one!

Thanks agin, for all your support, in my relentelss quest, to attempt to recreate the lost music of the ancient world...



Friday, December 7, 2012

Wayne Ranney: Geologist, Adventurer, and Mapmaster Flash


You may recall that I mentioned, sometime in the recent past, the paleogeographic maps are fabulous. Or you may not. But they are. And what's even more wonderful is that Wayne Ranney, one of the guys behind those afore-mentioned fabulous maps will be speaking at the Heard Museum on Tuesday, December 11, at 1:30 p.m. To 3:00 p.m. He'll be signing copies of his books in our book store afterward. I've posted a review of the book he co-wrote with Ron Blakey, Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, which features maps that depict what the Colorado Plateau may have looked like millions and even billions of years ago.


 I will soon be posting a review of Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery (2nd Edition) which casts light on past and recent arguments about when the Grand Canyon began to form.


 And I look forward to diving into Sedona Through Time, which delves into the formation of one of the most beautiful places on Earth: Oak Creek Canyon.


We have all three titles available at the Heard Museum Book Store, and Mr. Ranney will be signing there after his lecture. Don't miss it!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Those Darned Visigoths


Michael Levy's video clip on BBC didn't go quite as planned, though he did get some background music in (apparently while someone is holding forth about Visigoths). But fear not, you can see the entire clip. Just follow the link Michael sent along.  Here's what Michael has to say about the experience:


Thanks for the moral support - attempting to recreate the music of the ancient world can sometimes be a very frustrating, lonesome task! I just wish the producer had told me the facts...before I launched my mass email & website campaigns about the televised performance!

I might not have had my tantalizingly close live TV performance moment yet, but in the meantime, here is a free download link to the actual HD video file of the bonus out-take of my lyre & I from the music shoot for the BBC 4 documentary series "The Dark Ages An Age of Light" - the clip that the editor decided to leave out of the actual documentary in favour of a relatively rubbish 43 second clip of barely noticeable background music (during incessant waffling monologue about the Goths & Visigoths etc, towards the end of epsiode 2!!):

http://www.mediafire.com/?scbn6xyb5wymh5d

I will also be sending the link to everyone subscribed to my website mailing list.  If you are able to "spread the word" about this free video download link, this would be greatlly apreciated - so that some day, somehow, my retro lyre & I will transform the miserable modern world into a whole new 
dimension of meaningful mellowness...BRING IT ON!!! ;o)