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Post by berkley on May 3, 2024 18:58:17 GMT -5
You mean artistically or how much their covers sell for? I don't know anything about prices but I do like Cho's artwork a lot and wish he would produce more comics as opposed to just covers. Adam Hughes's work I've never been able to stand at all. Something about his style just turns me off. I mean the beauty of the figures. They are 3 of a kind.
I won't get into details but for me Hughes is the odd man out even in regard to this particular aspect.
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Post by berkley on May 3, 2024 18:55:21 GMT -5
Blueberry 3: Angel Face (1989), Blueberry 4: The Ghost Tribe (1990) & Blueberry 5: The End of the Trail (1990)These graphic novels represent the conclusion to Blueberry's quest to clear his name. It's a long, sprawling tale with many twists and turns, and I imagine quite exhausting to read continuously. Each graphic novel contains two installments of the story. I read one installment per weekend over the course of six weeks at a far more leisurely pace. The art seemed to dip a bit towards the end, and I wondered if Giraud' heart was still in it as I had read that he did Blueberry to pay the bills so he could purse his more experimental "Moebius" stuff. Things picked up again in the final volume, however, and the art was restored to its previous grandeur. It would be remiss of me not to mention the coloring on these books, some of which is done by Moebius himself as well as various other colorists. The coloring is some of my favorite work in comics, and along with the painted Moebius covers, make these gorgeous books to read. It seems the lasting legacy of Epic was introducing a new generation of readers and cartoonists to the works of Moebius and Otomo. It seems bizarre that Marvel would be the curator for such a thing, but give the hard working editors their due. These Blueberry books must have sold well enough to encourage Epic to print more Blueberry stories in '91. I wonder how much Blueberry we would have gotten if the Epic line hadn't been squashed by the money men.
I should be getting back to this series soon after having neglected it the last year or two. I'm at the sequence before this one, though, the one that begins with Chihuahua Pearl.
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Post by berkley on May 2, 2024 12:06:47 GMT -5
I could see myself taking a chance on this. I've often thought of trying something by Björk but have never gotten round to it, mostly out of sheer laziness. I would caution against Medúlla as your first Björk album. It's not a particularly easy listen compared to some of her other stuff. It's got some good stuff on it, for sure, and the voices only nature of the album is certainly very interesting, but it's not that immediate. I'd say you'd be much better starting off with her first solo album Debut (1993), or it's follow-up Post (1995), or my personal favourite Homogenic (1997). Those are much easier introductions to Björk's music for the neophyte.
I'll probably follow that advice since in addition to the reasons you give it also fits in with the 1990s listening I've been doing.
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Post by berkley on May 2, 2024 9:17:05 GMT -5
OK, a little late to the party, but here are my Top 10 albums of 2004 then. This was definitely a much less strong year for albums than 1994 was, as far as the music I liked is concerned anyway. #10 - Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon #9 - Kasabian by KasabianThe Kings of Leon track sounds tolerable on first listen, but it strikes me as the kind of thing I'd get tired of very quickly. I don't remember ever hearing it before so it couldn't have made any impression on me at the time, or possibly it wasn't a hit locally here.
Kasabian I'm not sure: I think I might get to like it better if it weren't for that big beat sound you mentioned. That's a big turn-off for me, as I seem to remember it being for a few other songs or bands of the 90s and 2000s, though I couldn't name any names off the top of my head.
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Post by berkley on May 2, 2024 9:06:01 GMT -5
More catching up with my favourite albums of 2004... #8 - Medúlla by BjörkI could see myself taking a chance on this. I've often thought of trying something by Björk but have never gotten round to it, mostly out of sheer laziness.
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Post by berkley on May 1, 2024 10:36:22 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2004 #8 – Raul Malo – Nashville Acoustic Sessions
This acoustic set by Mavericks front-man Raul Malo is definitely twangier than anything we had gotten from The Mavericks or from Malo solo in a long time. Considering the musicians he had with him, guitarist/mandolinist Pat Flynn, dobro wizard Rob Ickes, and Dave Pomeroy (one of the top session bassists in Nashville) that's not surprising. This is a set of an eclectic group of covers from multiple eras and genres. The stand-outs, for me, are Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" and Van Morrison's "Bright Side of the Road." The album doesn't really break any new ground, but it's a nice showcase for Malo's vocals with great backing musicians. Very interesting: I've been a huge Roy Orbison fan since I was a kid and Blue Bayou is one of my favourite songs. I like Malo's version: he has the voice to do it justice and it was a great idea to do an acoustic version. If I had to make a criticism on this first listen, the arrangement feels a little over-busy.
I'm also a huge Van Morrison fan and the album this song comes from, Into the Music, is one of my favourites of his - but this particular track, though one of the better known from that album, has never quite worked for me, for one reason or another. I think I like Malo's version better: the slightly slower tempo makes it sound less generic and perfunctory, which is how it's always struck me in relation to the rest of Morrison's Into the Music album.
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Post by berkley on May 1, 2024 1:41:17 GMT -5
1994.1 Teenager of the Year - Frank BlackThe first two Frank Black solo albums - this is the second - are right up there with the best of the Pixies for me, without sounding like nothing more than a continuation of what had gone before. I think his later ones are good too, if less consistent, but those first two are really special. I loved his odd, unexpected melodies and lyrics: after listening to this cd a few days ago I found several of the songs replaying repeatedly in my head and the other day while waiting for the train for work, I suddenly realised I had been singing/humming some parts out loud and had to surruptiously look around to make sure no one had noticed me inexplicably mumbling "The vanishing spies, just something I read, a couple of eyes ... right out of the head", etc, in my tuneless voice. Any one of the top 3 or 4 on my list could have been number 1 but I think this one, the Proclaimers, and the Cranberries probably had the biggest emotional impact around 1994 and listening to them again now that still seems to hold. I'm not sure why exactly I put this one at number 1, but as I try to choose which tracks to post, I notice that I'm having a hard time choosing, there are so many I'd like to share. On the other hand, there are 22 tracks, so the proportions probably work out the same. Regardless, here are the three I've gone with:
But as with all great albums, it's misleading to pick out a song here and there: it's really the ebb and flow of the album from start to finish that makes it great, not just a few isolated outstanding traccks that might as well be heard on a greatest hits compilation or whatever.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 23:38:59 GMT -5
Don't forget Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn and George Segal, as an Algerian Legion paratrooper. Yep, George Segal.
And Claudia Cardinale, I see. Don't think I've seen that one either. My impression is that Alain Delon made a few attempts to break into Hollywood and the English-speaking market, but never succeeded in becoming the huge star as he was in French films, where he was one of the top guys for much of his career. Whether that was just bad luck or what, who knows.
On the subject of acting in a second language, a friend of mine was telling me about an interview he saw with Michael Ironside once: Ironside's an anglophone Canadian who does speak French but apparently felt he wasn't able to act in French as well as he'd like (this was an interview about a Canadian miniseries called The Last Chapter, a bike gang crime story that was filmed in both French and English versions).
How was Delon's English-language performance in the ones you've seen? I think his screen presence and star power come over in a big way in his French films, or the few of them I've seen at least, but perhaps it didn't carry over completely to his English-language movies, though I haven't seen or don't remember enough to judge from my own viewing.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 21:07:23 GMT -5
Looks like May will be a heavy movie-going month for me. Apart from new films, there are several classics coming up at the two cinemas I mostly go to here, so many I won't be able to catch them all: but I'll try to get to as many as a i can. Tomorrow night at the one closer to me they're showing Wings of Desire and later in the month John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, both of which I've seen before, but not for a long time and PoD I've only seen on video on an old-style tv. And at the other place, farther away, they're showing four Alain Delon movies, none of which I've ever seen before: -Le Samouraï, Purple Noon, The Red Circle, and Red Sun. I’ve seen all those. Le Samourai and Purple Noon are the two most famous. I’m not such a big fan of Le Samourai, but Purple Noon is great. But Red Circle is my favorite of these! Such a great movie! And Red Sun has Delon, Mifune, Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress! It’s been a while since I saw it, and I remember it as being an OK movie but well worth watching just for that cast. Of course, my favorite Delon movie is L’eclisse.
Haven't seen L'eclisse/L'Éclipse, will add that to the list.
Actually now that I look up Delon's filmography, I think I've seen Purple Noon - I didn't realise that was the English title for Plein Soleil. And I remember that I tried watching Le Samouraï once on a French-language tv channel but wasn't able to follow the dialogue without sub-titles.
You're right, great cast in Red Circle, though I find great screen beauties like Andress and Capucine often aren't shown in their best light in westerns. Something about the costumes and settings doesn't bring out their marvellous beauty to the full. But there are exceptions, maybe this will be one.
In the 1950s viewing I've been doing lately I have another early Delon movie lined up to watch at home, Christine (1958), with Romy Schneider, with whom he made great pair in The Swimming Pool (La Piscine, 1968), which I saw at the cinema a year or two ago.
I missed Wings of Desire tonight - walked down to find a huge line-up, which is unusual for this cinema and usually happens with newer movies so I hadn't been expecting one for this classic. But it's playing again tomorrow night so I have one more chance.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 20:37:16 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2004 #9 – Junior Brown – Down Home Chrome
Upon further review, this probably should have been #10 or possibly lower. I think I was just feeling the album when I initially made this list more than I am now. It's a very uneven album. Junior took risks and tried to do things that just weren't always successful. When he's being Junior Brown...you can't argue with it. And the guitar work is always amazing. But "Jimmy Jones" is just insipid. And I'm not convinced that Junior Brown should be covering Hendrix's "Foxy Lady." On the other hand, "Little Rivi-Airhead" and "Hill Country Hot Rod Man" are vintage Junior Brown. But this is a decidedly minor album for him and is absolutely not the place to start.
I have one Junior Brown cd, 12 Shades of Brown. I haven't listened to it for a long time but I remember liking it at the time.
I just had a quick look at wiki's 2004 in music page and I probably won't be able to come up with ten albums for that year, or for many years after the 90s. But there are two or three things that came out that year that I really like so I'll post them when the time comes.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 20:32:34 GMT -5
It might be also that he has a limited amount of work produced. Personally, I feel that Frank Cho and Adam Hughes are on par with Stevens work. You mean artistically or how much their covers sell for? I don't know anything about prices but I do like Cho's artwork a lot and wish he would produce more comics as opposed to just covers. Adam Hughes's work I've never been able to stand at all. Something about his style just turns me off.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 19:55:53 GMT -5
Yeah, that's about the only one I see with two characters I'd be interested in. Lots of other individual characters I like but don't know the ones they're talking to.
edit: unless .... who's that talking to American Flagg in the lower left? Not Rocco Vargas, the Daniel Torres character, is it?
Do you mean the guy in the shirt, pants and suspenders/braces? Not sure. The woman directly opposite him is Martha Washington, from Frank Miller & Dave Gibbons' Give Me Liberty. I'm not sure about the guy....I don't think Rocco Vargas and I also don't think it is Lester Girls, from The Trouble With Girls. I wonder if it was meant to be Chaykin's lead from Time 2, or possibly another character from Love and Rockets. I kind of like Hopey (I believe), throwing her cup at Mister X, which might be a commentary on the fallout between Jaime and Dean Motter, over The Return of Mister X. Zot and Concrete in conversation, by the Spirit portrait, would be interesting to eavesdrop,. I would have put Milk and Cheese next to Too Much Coffee Man. They just fit together. Xenozoic Tales' Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee seem a little standoffish, standing apart form others. El Borbah and Cowboy Wally would be an interesting conversation, there, just right of center. I didn't catch the image of Hopey, so that would be another good one, especially since Hernandez worked with both characters; also didn't realise that was supposed to be Jack Tenrec and Hannah Dundee - I thought the idea was to match up characters from different series? I think the only other character you mention that I've read is El Borbah.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 17:20:42 GMT -5
kirby101
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 15:13:00 GMT -5
1994.2
No Need to Argue - Cranberries
This was a huge album here in Canada, and I assume everywhere else in the western pop music world too? I hadn't listened to it in years until a few days ago for this thread but when I did every song came back to me. Even the big hits that I've heard a million times haven't played themselves dead - that guitar line to Ode to My Family gets me every time. I was already a fan before this album came out, having bought their previous cd after hearing a couple songs on late-night CBC radio (Brave New Waves, if anyone remembers that show: that's where I heard a lot of the then-new stuff I ended up getting into). This album, while recognisably the same band, was very different in mood: the first one was softer, more smoothly flowing. There were three or four songs from this album that got a lot of airplay at the time, can't recall if the following was one of them or not as I heard the entire album so often at an Irish pub I used to got to lot back then.
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Post by berkley on Apr 30, 2024 1:11:45 GMT -5
I liked the two Tim Powers books I read back in the 80s, The Anubis Gates and Dinner at Deviant's Palace, and always meant to read more of his work but somehow never have gotten around to it. But I'll get there one of these days. Anubis Gates is one of three more books by Powers I have on my shelf waiting to be read (another is the third installment of the Fault Lines trilogy that I'll probably start reading today). Dinner at Deviant's Palace is one I'd like to get to eventually, because it's possibly his only straight-up SF novel, as opposed to the supernatural/fantasy (mixed with alt history) stuff he usually does.
A trivial note, but I just brought up the French wikipedia to look for something else (Alain Delon's filmography, for another thread) and their featured article of the day that pops up when you first open the site was "Les Voies d'Anubis ... un roman fantastique et de science-fiction écrit par Tim Powers ..." . The interesting thing is, I don't think that's an exact translation of The Gates of Anubis: I thought "voies" was more something like roads or ways or paths and I would have guessed the most obvious translation for "gates" would have been "portes". But then again, my French is far from fluent so I could be completely mistaken. I did check DeepL, an online translation site, and it does seem to agree, more or less - portails might be the better word for gates.
Anyway, just thought it was a curious coincidence that that particular book came up, presumably at random (no idea how wikipedia chooses these "articles of the day" - some kind of automated process?) just a few days after we were talking about it here, and then the possibly not quite exact translation of the title struck me as well. I do have the usual misgivings about reading things in translation - how do we know which is the best when there are several choices available, for example? And when you do pick one, or one is picked for you because there are no alternatives, how much of the original are you really getting?
But I'm very much a proponent of reading things in translation. No one, not even the greatest polyglott, can know every language on earth, so if you want to read things from other cultures, as I think everyone should, you have no choice but to rely on translations in some or in all cases.
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