Ennio Morricone dies at age 91

[Marcel Birgelen]

According to multiple sources, Ennio Morricone, one of the most influential music composers for film of our time, has sadly passed away at age of 91, after complications arising from a fall.

Despite there obviously being enough sad news in the world, it personally saddens me to read this. Having never had the experience to attend any one of his concerts, I hoped he would, maybe, give one more tour that I could attend, but it's clear that the clock was somewhat ticking against it, especially given the current situation in the world, where live events, especially indoors, seem to be a bad idea for the time being.

[Randy Stankey]

My girlfriend's father worked with Ennio Morricone.

Although he didn't speak of him, directly, he did tell some stories about those times. As I remember, I'm pretty sure that her father would have said that Morricone was "one of the good guys."

[Frank Cox]

He could take three or four notes and set up the theme and atmosphere for an entire movie. And he did it many times over.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly wouldn't be nearly as famous as it is without that theme music and hook.

[Martin McCaffery]

My favorite find on the internet since the pandemic:
https://youtu.be/enuOArEfqGo
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra Live

[Marcel Birgelen]

A good find, very good quality and very impressive performance.

I think it's about almost a year ago I last watched this recording from 2002, directed by Ennio himself. It's not in HD, but the sound quality is OK (better than the video) but the setting, the Arena di Verona, a classical Roman amphitheater is simply unbeatable.

He could take three or four notes and set up the theme and atmosphere for an entire movie. And he did it many times over.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly wouldn't be nearly as famous as it is without that theme music and hook.

That's probably part of the trick with good and catchy soundtracks or I dare to say, good music in general. It's interesting how his soundtracks for The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West have shaped what we think of as a soundtrack for a classical "Western" movie, although his soundtracks use many instruments that weren't really common for the setting at hand.

[Martin McCaffery]

On the other hand, the most disappointing discovery...I hope Morricone charged them a really big fee
https://youtu.be/DR2pFTdxZq8

[Marcel Birgelen]

Hey, it's an ad about recycling... you can't blame them for trying to get their music-carbon-footprint down. Don't you know how much more carbon the advertising agency would've burned to come up with an original idea instead of partly recycling something good and proven?

Also, isn't H&M one of the biggest peddlers of cheap Bangladesh-made slave-worker produce? You know, with workers living on a "sustainable" wage in the most "Wild-West" circumstances? Because that would totally fit the theme of the music they're using.

This ad gives irony a whole new dimension.

[Randy Stankey]

The "thumpa-thump-thump" drum track instantly turned me off!

There was a cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly," done by the Fugees that I really hated for the same reason. The Fugees are actually pretty good singers. Even though I'm not into Hip Hop, I would have liked that song if they had left out the cheesy drum track and done the whole song a cappella.

I heard the piano lead-in on that YT video and instantly recognized it as "Ecstasy of Gold" but the second I heard the drum track, I was like, "Nope!"

About sustainable materials... I call bullshit!

You can source your raw materials from organically grown cotton, fed on pure, mountain spring water but it doesn't amount a hill of beans. That cotton still has to be harvested with tractors, hauled into and out of several factories by trucks, spun into thread and woven into cloth by machines then dyed with chemicals before it's sent to industrial sweatshops where it is sewn into clothes by the same overworked, underpaid, semi-skilled working stiffs who produce the regular stuff.

All of those trucks, all of those machines and all of the other materials like thread, buttons, zippers and packaging have to be made in other factories by other underpaid workers, too. All of the raw materials that go into those trucks and machines, etc., has to be grown, mined or refined then manufactured before the apparatus needed to make those "sustainable" clothes can be put into action.

I bet that the "sustainable" materials which those clothes are made from don't account for more than a few percent of total amount of the resources, energy and eventual pollution required to bring such goods to market.

Yeah, like Marcel says. It's irony up the old wazoo!

[Martin McCaffery]

Well, Randy, I think you're going to really hate this one. I, however, am quite fond of it;>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARWmgfewkUE
[edited to correct link]

[Randy Stankey]

Her Dad is rolling in his grave, right now!

[Marcel Birgelen]

Well, Randy, I think you're going to really hate this one. I, however, am quite fond of it;>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARWmgfewkUE
[edited to correct link]

Those 80s gated reverb drums, you can recognize them 100 miles against the wind, like there's something in the air tonight.

I bet that the "sustainable" materials which those clothes are made from don't account for more than a few percent of total amount of the resources, energy and eventual pollution required to bring such goods to market.

Part of the 6-feet-deep layer of irony is that the most sustainable way of doing business would be selling clothes that last longer than just one summer long, both in style and material quality.

[Randy Stankey]

My GF's father wasn't a principle for GB&U. He wasn't credited for any of the three Spaghetti Westerns but, since he was with Malpaso, he was there, at the time. He's the guy who secured the rights to the book, "The Education of Little Tree" which the movie "Josey Wales" was made from.

If he saw that trailer for GB&U he would have been like, "No, no, no! This is all wrong!" Then he would have talked about how the originals were made, who made the decisions and why.

People took movie making very seriously, back in those days. His attitude toward current movies was that everything is so superficial, today, compared to the way people used to do it.

One of the real ironies about "sustainability" is that people talk as if the solution to the world's problems is to reject technology, getting back to a simpler time of living. In truth, because the world's population is so large and the needs of humanity are so great, the earth can no longer sustain us in the old ways.

The only real way out of this is THROUGH technology, not against it. We need to use computers, machines and science to figure out ways to use the world's limited resources better, more efficiently and with less waste. Growing organic cotton to make clothes from by gently sprinkling it with pure, mountain spring water isn't going to work. It takes up too much land. It uses too much water and resources to grow. It causes too much pollution to manufacture and market products and, like Marcel says, it all goes to waste after it's been worn for just a short time.

We need technology to grow crops with LESS land, using less water and fertilizer. We need to harvest it, manufacture and sell it with less energy and less pollution. We need to reuse waste, in one way or another, to reduce our burden on the environment.

That ad's irony isn't just six feet deep... More like six miles deep!