Ringer Spy Daniel son of David sends in this report from the London paper ‘Metro’:
Here’s a short article from London paper Metro:
LORD OF THE RINGS MORE POPULAR THAN THE BIBLE
Lord of the Rings is more popular than the Bible, according to a new survey.
JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novel beat Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice to the top spot in a W H Smith survey. The Bible came third. The most popular author was Catherine Cookson, with Jane Austen in fifth place and Tolkien down in 12th. The lists mix old favourites with newer challengers – the fourth favourite book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson coming in just ahead of Thomas Harris’s Silence of the Lambs. Disgraced Tory peer Jeffrey Archer’s novel Kane and Abel was chosen as the 14th most popular book. The authors’ list was dominated by recent novelists, with Cookson followed by Stephen King, Roald Dahl and, in fourth place, Danielle Steel.
William Shakespeare was tenth and Charles Dickens 11th. The survey was to propmote the annual Thumping Good Read Award, won this year by Boris Starling for Storm.
(W H Smiths is a chain of booksellers/newsagents in the UK)
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The NZ pop culture magazine ‘Pulp’ has let us reproduce their very funny article on the LOTR rumour mill. (more)
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A short search uncovered a lot of praise for this musician, and the reviews for him sound very promising. (more)
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What do we know about Howard Shore?
Well, he’s Canadian, born in Toronto in 1946. He used to belong to a band called Lighthouse, but left them in 1978 for a career in film music. At first he worked a lot with the director David Cronenberg, and provided the music for his ‘The Fly’, ‘Scanners’, ‘Videodrome’ and ‘Naked Lunch;’ more recently ‘Existenz.’ As Cronenberg is regarded as an innovative director, so Shore is regarded as having ‘a difficult, confrontational style which constantly challenges the perceptions and ideas of film music.’ (Movie Music UK)
This sounds very promising; the ideal kind of person to work with PJ and his team, who are similarly constantly working on the edges of what’s expected.
There’s a whopping great huge list of Shore’s filmography on UK Movie Music br>In there it also mentions that Shore has the flexibility to compose in a range of styles. It’s very promising what they say about his feel for the ‘dark uncertain world of thrillers and horrors.’He did the soundtrack for ‘Silence of the Lambs.’ Here’s the great review it got from Movie Music UK:
“…this superbly chilling score by Howard Shore, whose ability to create a musical sense of overpowering tension is second to none in Hollywood at the moment. The score is performed by a full symphony orchestra throughout, but intentionally adopts a languorous tone and pace. This is the absolute epitome of “dark” film music, with the performers of the Munich Symphony Orchestra regularly playing their instruments at the lowest possible end of their ranges, and through orchestrations so thick they almost become a solid wall of sound. “
Or what about this review from the same source, this time for ‘M. Butterfly’:
“Complementing Cronenberg’s unique visual style and Peter Suschitzky’s sumptuous, panoramic cinematography is Howard Shore’s sublime music, who was given free reign leave the shackles of dissonance far behind him and compose a work of exquisite beauty, texture and restraint. The main theme, given a full rendition in the first track ‘M Butterfly’, is built around a lovely four note motif, and is granted a thunderous opening statement on horns before moving on to be performed by woodwinds with a string backing and accompaniment from a delicate harp”
Whaah! I can’t wait.
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I’ve had an email or two on that. Well, last year somebody noticed a car with the ‘Sauron’ licence plate. Now, I think that vanity plates are a stupid idea, but on the other hand, other people seem to think they’re worth buying. So I jumped on that bandwagon as quick as I could, narrowly beating out another buyer who had dibs on the same names. My recent correspondent mentions that his friend with the Sauron plate has been offered $6000 by an investor. Meanwhile the Mighty Orc Hunter has come up with the stats on vanity plate sales, showing a slight increase in the sales of LOTR-themed plates in the last two years. Before the last two years, most of the plates sold were as likely to be Hobbit or Silmarillion-related, like ‘ARDA’ or ‘SMAUG’, but things like ‘ORC’ and ‘MORDOR’ and LOTR character names are suddenly very popular this year and last.
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This is getting to be a habit. I’ve found the best coffee and a free park that the towtrucks haven’t discovered yet, so it’s a case of turning up and watching the cryptic mumblings of the law at work. (more)
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