Passages

[thirtyframesasecond]

Frank Farian - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/ ... es-aged-82

A chequered musical legacy, let's say, but I have a lot of time for the more well known Boney M and Milli Vanilli tracks.

[hearthesilence]

Norman Jewison

I would argue that founding the Canadian Film Centre is his greatest legacy. A rare Canadian filmmaker who went to Hollywood but gave back to his homeland in a big way.

Remarkable to think that him and Glenn Gould were high school classmates

I don't know if there's an uncut copy out there, but his Oscar tribute was great - my favorite moment is when they interviewed one of his screenwriters who deadpanned "Norman called me up and said 'this is a masterpiece, we're going to shoot it as-is, we're not going to change a single word.' We went through thirty-eight drafts" (or something like that) much to everyone's delight.

[hearthesilence]

Charles Osgood of CBS News

[CSM126]

Melanie

[FrauBlucher]

Melanie

Brand New Key

[domino harvey]

This incredible performance of “Birthday of the Sun” somehow not only didn’t make Woodstock in even its extended version, but didn’t make any of the outtakes and deleted scenes on the Blu-ray either

[ksmred2]

Lee Doo-yong. The Last Witness is regarded as his masterpiece and a favourite among the new wave directors like Park Chan-wook and Bong. The Hut is also incredible and can be found on youtube with English subs along with a few other films of his.

[hearthesilence]

Harry Connick Sr., the New Orleans D.A. from 1973 to 2003. He led an office that sent hundreds of Black men to prison and he unrepentantly became known for his record of wrongful convictions. (His son Harry Jr. is the popular singer, pianist and actor.)

[charal]

In regard to Melanie’s Woodstock performance of ‘Birthday’ it is strange that it was overlooked for the 40th and 45th anniversary versions of the extended blu rays. We did get the stunning’Tuning my Guitar’ however (on the 45th). Video of ‘Birthday’ was included on the 1991 film WOODSTOCK: THE LOST PERFORMANCES (only existing now on VHS or YouTube).

[colinr0380]

I had rather missed this but on 11th July 2023 Michael Bakewell died. A lot of the obituaries have concentrated on his BBC work, where he was one of the most prolific Producers on the "Theatre 625" series on BBC2 in the 1960s (apparently he produced 55 of the 115 total episodes, at least according to imdb), including producing an adaptation of Franz Kafka's Amerika, and a run of Harold Pinter productions - A Slight Ache, A Night Out and The Basement (all of which are collected on the BFI's "Pinter at the BBC" DVD set), which occurred during the period that Pinter was having an affair with Bakewell's wife, the Journalist Joan Bakewell, which became the subject of Pinter's play (and later film with Jeremy Irons) Betrayal.

Into the 1970s he was the Dubbing Director for the seminal (and probably unbroadcastable now!) English language dubs of two bought in live action series from Japan, turning them into cult classics in the process, with The Water Margin (aka Suikoden), and Monkey, both of which bizarrely feature Miriam Margolyes amongst the voice cast!

When he moved into radio he had probably his most notable success, adapting with Brian Sibley The Lord of the Rings for the BBC into an epic 26 episode radio series, with Ian Holm as Frodo. Which was for the longest time the most complete adaptation out of the books until the Peter Jackson films arrived.

However the thing that brought him to my attention at this moment is the obituary by Jonathan Clements in Issue 235 of Neo Magazine, who pointed out that Bakewell was also "one of British anime's forgotten figures", as after Monkey he moved into becoming a Dubbing Director for many English language dubs of anime for Manga Video. This includes some utter classics of the medium, such as Project A-Ko, the Crying Freeman series, the Dark Myth (which is in no way the "trash" that Clements labels it as), the two Devil Man OVAs, the Angel Cop series, A.D. Police, Dominion Tank Police, Mad Bull 34 (aka the Japanese take on Lethal Weapon! And which kinda is worthy of Clements' dismissive "trash" label, but in a wonderful way! The same could be said of Junk Boy too!), Genocyber, Judge, the anime adaptation of Battle Angel: Alita and so many others.

Plus most of the Yoshiaki Kawajiri works including A Wind Named Amnesia, Wicked City and Demon City, Goku: Midnight Eye and the series that I keep mentioning is the one English language dub I entirely endorse and would favour over the original Japanese track, the dub for the Cyber City OEDO 808 series.

And the dubs for the Katushiro Otomo film Roujin Z, as well as dubs of two Masmune Shirow works: the 1988 Appleseed film, and the first Patlabor: The Mobile Police film.

He even did the two episodes of the Tokyo Babylon series (which, as with Cyber City, I cannot really imagine experiencing in anything other than their English dubbed versions) and ended that period of his career in 1996 with the dub for X, which is set in the same universe as Tokyo Babylon was, but is much darker in tone (very much the Lord of the Rings to Tokyo Babylon's Hobbit!)

So if you have heard any of those in their UK/Manga Video English language dubbed versions (which was often the only form in which they were released in the UK in the 1990s - only Ghost In The Shell and Akira were given the honour of receiving separate subtitled releases by Manga Video during that period, whilst everything else was dubbed across the board. Incidentally that's what made the much smaller and niche boutique labels such as Kiseki Films and Western Connection so vitally important for the UK anime scene at the time, because they released mostly subtitled editions of their titles on VHS) Bakewell was the Dubbing Director for them. When he stepped back in 1996 following the bowel cancer diagnosis noted in the Guardian and Clements obit, that led to the end of an era, as Manga Video stopped producing their own dubs to save money and instead started to just buy in the English dubs from the US for a while before they themselves (in face of fans much preferring the original audio if available) pretty much stopped producing English dubs altogether in favour of just subtitles. Unless it was a series particularly targeted at kids such as the Pokemon or Digimon series, and feature film spin-offs.

From that point the US took over the scene (one notable example from the time is the compilation film of the Armitage III series that got a US theatrical release and had its English dub re-dubbed with Elizabeth Berkeley just coming off of Showgirls and Kiefer Sutherland voicing the main roles) with English language dubs of anime coming back notably once in the late 90s with the specially produced by Miramax dub of Princess Mononoke, which was a kind of dry run for what Disney would end up doing with all of the Miyazaki films from Spirited Away in 2002 onwards, in getting Hollywood actors in to dub anime, albeit only anything Studio Ghibli-related.

[otis]

Sandra Milo

[bottlesofsmoke]

Dang. Most people will know her from the Fellini films, but I love the movies she made with Pietrangeli, especially La visita.

[hearthesilence]

Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys just posted on his social media accounts that his wife, Melinda, has died.

How they met and her role in helping him was portrayed in Love & Mercy.

[FrauBlucher]

Chita Rivera 91

[beamish14]

Brian Griffin, photographer who shot some of the most beautiful and iconic record sleeves ever, including Echo and the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here, Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp, and Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame

[Buttery Jeb]

Hinton Battle

[hearthesilence]

Brian Griffin, photographer who shot some of the most beautiful and iconic record sleeves ever, including Echo and the Bunnymen’s Heaven Up Here, Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp, and Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame

Wow. I actually just got this photo he took for Devo's first EP signed by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale on Saturday. It's always been my favorite sleeve cover of any Devo record, and I even considered buying a limited edition print from a gallery in the UK but it was way more than I could really afford.

[ando]

Hinton Battle

Oh wow. Thanks. Saw him as the scarecrow in the original Broadway production of The Wiz. R.I.P.

[ando]

Chita Rivera 91

Thanks. The original Broadway ‘Anita’ who ended up playing a version of ‘Doc’ in the remake, she’s the only reason I’m venturing a viewing of the Spielberg West Side Story. R.I.P.

[Matt]

You can spare yourself from the Spielberg version, Rivera is not in it. I think you’re thinking of Rita Moreno, who was Anita in the 1961 film and who plays Valentina (Mrs. “Doc”) in the Spielberg film.

Rivera is in Chicago (2002) if you want to make a substitution.

[ando]

You can spare yourself from the Spielberg version, Rivera is not in it. I think you’re thinking of Rita Moreno, who was Anita in the 1961 film and who plays Valentina (Mrs. “Doc”) in the Spielberg film.

Rivera is in Chicago (2002) if you want to make a substitution.

I just remembered that it was Moreno as the new ‘Doc’, not Rivera. Watching the remake now. Fairly flat despite the glorious music (Kushner wrote this?). And yes, Chita’s cameo in Chicago is oddly memorable - no dancing, but a one or two liner appearance as a prison inmate, right? The original Velma Kelly, too. Thanks.

[Matt]

Rivera is in Chicago (2002) if you want to make a substitution.

Chita’s cameo in Chicago is oddly memorable - no dancing, but a one or two liner appearance as a prison inmate, right? The original Velma Kelly, too.

Indeed. With Gwen Verdon as Roxie. When Verdon fell ill, Liza Minnelli stepped in for her (to rave reviews), and a wonderful video has just surfaced of Rivera’s surprise reunion with Liza on the Dinah Shore show (with Chicago creators John Kander and Fred Ebb).

[hearthesilence]

Bruce Springsteen just announced via social media that his mother passed away yesterday. Those who follow his work closely will probably know how close they were and what a much-needs stabilizing presence she was in his life. Both his song "The Wish" (a great 1987 outtake that remained unreleased until his 1998 box set Tracks) and his memoir (along with Springsteen on Broadway) were great, loving tributes.

[ando]

When Verdon fell ill, Liza Minnelli stepped in for her (to rave reviews), and a wonderful video has just surfaced of Rivera’s surprise reunion with Liza on the Dinah Shore show (with Chicago creators John Kander and Fred Ebb).

Thanks! That was fun. Even the obligatory video record (which they make of every Broadway show) of those two would be worth a viewing . Unfortunately, I don't think they make one of (what Elaine Strich dubbed) "the replacements".

[dwk]

According to a tweet from Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, who co-directed Pinocchio with him, died yesterday