Pop focus: Vintage Disneyland attractions posters

Can't take a trip to Disneyland this summer? Then time travel back with these.

We'll have more Disneyland in a couple of weeks here, as the park celebrates the 60th anniversary of its opening.
































Coming up: Out of This World - Ron Goodwin, Russ Garcia and the Spotniks

Out July 28.

At the dawn of the space age, with man standing on the threshold on conquering realms hitherto only realised in his wildest dreams, it is only natural that the prospect of interplanetary travel should begin to influence various aspects of our everyday lives. No longer are such events the figment of a riotous imagination, confined within the paper covers of a science-fiction novel. The conquest of space has already begun - and the effect of it's impact is being reflected in many different ways, and expressed in a variety of media.
'Man's magnificent triumph is particularly suited to musical adaptation. For, in the very concept of a voyage into the unknown, the composer is presented with a vast tableau, as infinite as space itself, embodying every possible mood, colour and sensation.'

The launch of Sputnik 1 by the U.S.S.R in 1957, and Explorer 1 a year later by America captured the public imagination and space exploration became one of the dominant themes in popular entertainment.

Here then, powered up by the Spotnicks, is a celebration of Space Exotica involving three very different but equally singular musical views of the heavens

The Spotnicks were in the vanguard of 'Space Age Pop'; in both conception and sound. They donned their space suits to celebrate interplanetary mystique with an exciting style that deployed sound effects and heavily reverbed electric guitars. For Japanese teenagers, it was the Spotnicks who most successfully captured the mood of the era and the group enjoyed two successive number 1 single hits in Ajomies and Karelia.

Ron Goodwin is probably best known for his mid-sixties scores for Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, 633 Squadron, The Battle of Britain, Where Eagles Dare, along with his skilfully nuanced lighter work like the wonderful Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films. His George Martin produced Out Of This World (titled 'Music In Orbit' in America) was his inspired response to the growing interest in Exotica and Space Age Pop and, in particular - it has been speculated - to Russ Garcia's Fantastica, the album with which Out Of This World is twinned as the definitive works of the genre.

Goodwin's musical look at the Universe includes a comic strip conception of Martians, scoring a marimba and male voice choir to depict the rings around Saturn and articulating Mercury's mythology with a phrase based on the Morse S.O.S. signal; an action which the composer described as "jazz in the classical form'

Russ Garcia's Fantastica remains the gold standard by which all outer space exotica records are judged. The album is a marvel of sound and structure, so far ahead of its time that it would still be considered innovative even by today's standards. Garcia evokes the music of the cosmos via revolutionary studio techniques, cinematic arrangements, innovative electronic elements and the adept use of the "ethereal voce effects" on the track, The Volcanoes of Mercury, provided by the world-famous soprano, Marni Nixon.

THE SPOTNICKS

  1. ROCKET MAN
  2. MOONSHOT
  3. TELSTAR

    RON GOODWIN: OUT OF THIS WORLD!
  4. DEPARTURE
  5. THE MOON
  6. SALLY THE SATELLITE
  7. THE VENUS WALTZ
  8. MERCURY GETS THE MESSAGE
  9. THE SUN
  10. JUMPING JUPITER
  11. MARTIANS ON PARADE
  12. THE MILKY WAY
  13. THE RINGS AROUND SATURN
  14. PLAYTIME ON PLUTO
  15. RETURN MY LOVE

    RUSS GARCIA:
    FANTASTICA - MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE
  16. INTO SPACE
  17. NOVA (EXPLODING STAR)
  18. LOST SOULS OF SATURN
  19. MONSTERS OF JUPITER
  20. WATER CREATURES OF ASTRA
  21. VENUS
  22. RED SAND OF MARS
  23. GOOFY PEEPL OF PHOBOS
  24. VOLCANOES OF MERCURY
  25. BIRTH OF A PLANET
  26. FROZEN NEPTUNE
  27. MOON RISE

Pop culture roundup: Pete Townshend; Spider-Man; John Buscema

A symphonic version of the Who's "Quadrophenia" released by Pete Townshend isn't "classical" enough to top the classical charts in Britain.
...the orchestral record has not been accepted into the Classical Chart, due to the fact that the original material is rock music.

On discovering his exclusion ... Townshend expressed his disappointment:
“So musical snobbery in the “classical” elite is still alive & kicking then? F**k ’em. There’s a huge team behind this album, entirely rooted in the practical world of recorded classical music, who deserve better than this petty slap-down. I know I’m a rock dinosaur and I’m happy to be one, but the team on Classic Quadrophenia are all young, creative and brilliant.”
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Head's up, Chris Pratt: Spider-Man was fighting genetically engineered dinosaurs back in the 1970s.

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Diversions of a Groovy Kind shares a gallery of Fantastic Four splash pages by the great John Buscema.


Fab Friday: Beatles Around the World!

See more fab posts at the Glass Onion Beatles Journal.









Vintage ad: Sean Connery for Jim Beam


Pop stuff: Jurassic World, The Illusionist

What I'm watching, hearing, reading, etc.


Jurassic World. Set your expectations accordingly for this one. If you want lots of dinosaurs chases, thrills and chills: bingo. This is your movie. If you want anything else, well ... what the hell were you thinking?

The story and set have been updated. There's now a new "Jurassic" theme park. The head marketeer of the place, Claire Deering (Bryce Dallas Howard), is trying to make people forget about the old one, where people got eaten by the attractions, but -- naturally -- the owners are flirting with disaster.  Just like Disneyland and Captain Eo, bigger and ostensibly better attractions are needed to ensure the tourists keep coming through the gates.

In this case, the big new thing is a huge, new, scary dinosaur. A genetic cocktail of t-rex and God knows what else. Resident raptor trainer, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), knows the thing is too dangerous to live, let alone display. But doesn't anyone believe him?

It's only a matter of moments before Indominus Rex is on the loose and munching on humans and every other variety of dino. But we knew that would happen, just like we knew Claire wasn't as prissy and uptight as she seemed, and that she'd end up kissing Owen, and that Claire's two nephews, who are visiting the park while their parents are in the process of getting divorced, are a pair of scrappy little survivors.

There's not a single surprising thing about the movie, other than that something so utterly predictable can still be entertaining.

It would be nice if the filmmakers had flattered us a little by springing a surprise or weird curveball or two. Or by making better use of Pratt, whose great charm and comic chops remain largely unexploited here. You wonder why they spend the bucks casting him. 

But the filmmakers know they don't have to try hard. But it's summer. Dinosaurs are cool. The tickets sell themselves



The Illusionist is lovely, charming exploration of age and innocence based on a script by French director Jacque Tati, but never produced as the live-action film he'd intended. Instead, his story has been captured in beautiful animation by Sylvain Chomet, who created the popular "Triplets of Belleville" several years back.

As with that film, there's little dialogue here. Subtitles are unnecessary as we see the aging title character, a struggling magician, travel to Scotland, where his tricks -- mistaken for real magic -- enchant a young girl. Not wanting to let her down, he tries to keep up the act, but ultimately fails as she grows up and becomes just as enchanted with the outside world. It's a sweet, funny story laced with melancholy that will resonate with parents watching their children grow up.

Vintage movie poster: The Awful Truth