Unpopular Opinions

Started by The Six, November 11, 2011, 10:32:51 AM

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Uhor


Karl Henning

In spite of its flaws, I enjoy Quantum of Solace, and I always watch it as a follow-up to Casino Royale.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

VonStupp

#2902
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 03, 2021, 08:34:32 AM
In spite of its flaws, I enjoy Quantum of Solace, and I always watch it as a follow-up to Casino Royale.

Truly an unpopular opinion. I remember going to see Quantum in the theatre and being baffled that I had to remember characters and plot from a previous James Bond film, most of which I did not at the time and something I hadn't needed to do before. But serialized stories have been hot for a while now, so it seems par for the course anymore. I was just completely unprepared. I probably need to give it a revisit.

VS
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

MusicTurner

#2903
Quote from: DavidW on August 31, 2021, 02:59:21 AM
I seem to remember from a biography that he enjoyed spending his mornings drinking coffee and playing on his little clavichord.

Also Bach was known for huge amounts of walking and not just in his youth.  Bach was not actually corpulent, that is a myth.  It is also much harder for lower or middle class people to become overweight back then anyway.  They didn't have access to abundant junk food like we do now.

Certainly not a subject I studied, and it may be an exaggerated point, but a few google searches reveal that an inn receipt from 1716 has been preserved, showing that he at least occasionally liked good, plentiful food and alcohol, like a lot of his contemporaries. His contract from 1708 included receiving 30 'Eimer' of beer from the local castle, a unit that is very flexible, but apparently mostly between 15-18 gallons each, or around 60-75 litres. The amount has probably been specified in biographies. Plus that it was not unusual for a man in the 17th century to drink 6-8 litres of beer on a daily basis, for women and children it was a lot too. Beer was a nutrition source and much cleaner than town water back then. There are no references to any beer in his works however.

vers la flamme

Quote from: MusicTurner on October 03, 2021, 08:56:48 AM
Certainly not a subject I studied, and it may be an exaggerated point, but a few google searches reveal that an inn receipt from 1716 has been preserved, showing that he at least occasionally liked good, plentiful food and alcohol, like a lot of his contemporaries. His contract from 1708 included receiving 30 'Eimer' of beer from the local castle, a unit that is very flexible, but apparently mostly between 15-18 gallons each, or around 60-75 litres. The amount has probably been specified in biographies. Plus that it was not unusual for a man in the 17th century to drink 6-8 litres of beer on a daily basis, for women and children it was a lot too. Beer was a nutrition source and much cleaner than water back then. There are no references to any beer in his works however.

Damn, we could have used a beer cantata.

MusicTurner

#2905
Quote from: VonStupp on October 03, 2021, 08:54:04 AM
Truly an unpopular opinion. I remember going to see Quantum in the theatre and being baffled that I had to remember characters and plot from a previous James Bond film, most of which I did not at the time and something I hadn't needed to do before. But serialized stories have been hot for a while now, so it seem par for the course anymore. I was just complete unprepared. I probably need to give it a revisit.

VS

The Daniel Craig movies did a much, much needed ~update to the genre, and I prefer those, together with Lazenby's somewhat darkly coloured, only one.

MusicTurner

Quote from: vers la flamme on October 03, 2021, 09:19:54 AM
Damn, we could have used a beer cantata.

That would have been fun!

Spotted Horses

Quote from: VonStupp on October 03, 2021, 08:54:04 AM
Truly an unpopular opinion. I remember going to see Quantum in the theatre and being baffled that I had to remember characters and plot from a previous James Bond film, most of which I did not at the time and something I hadn't needed to do before. But serialized stories have been hot for a while now, so it seems par for the course anymore. I was just completely unprepared. I probably need to give it a revisit.

VS

You need to "prepare" to watch a Bond movie?  ???
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

VonStupp

#2908
Quote from: Spotted Horses on October 03, 2021, 10:24:10 AM
You need to "prepare" to watch a Bond movie?  ???

Ha! ;D Yes, well, it has been 13 years, so pardon any mis-rememberings.

Quantum carried over a lot of plot points and character names (some dead) from the previous Casino Royale. Suffice to say, I didn't remember any of them from two years before, and I was mostly lost when watching in the theater. Of course, I didn't expect to have to remember previous plots or characters, because each Bond movie I had seen up to then had essentially been bottle episodes unto their own with no overlap. Cinematic universes were not quite a thing yet, either.

On the other hand, the movie was pretty and action-filled, so I expect I was still entertained.

VS
"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

Symphonic Addict

Pulcinella goes better without the singing.
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Madiel

Beethoven's op.70/2 piano trio is better than the 'Ghost'.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Symphonic Addict

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Brian


ritter


Jo498

I also prefer op.70/2, I sometimes prefer it even to the "Archduke" although the slow movement of op.97 is superior. There's nothing wrong with op.70/1 but the discrepancy between this one and op.97 and the almost obscurity of 70/2 is baffling.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Crudblud

In a similar vein to Symphonic Addict's post, I much prefer L'histoire du soldat as an instrumental suite without the dramatic performance.

LKB

I prefer the old, " anachronistic " versions of both Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bare Mountain over the supposedly authentic versions currently in vogue.
Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen...

premont

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on February 01, 2022, 03:41:10 PM
Pulcinella goes better without the singing.

This is true of much music, not the least many operas.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Florestan

Quote from: (: premont :) on February 04, 2022, 08:04:50 AM
This is true of much music, not the least many operas.

For the life of me I can't understand why such strong and rather widespread dislike of singing here on GMG...  :o
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Jo498

Not sure if it applied to this forum but I think that a widespread dislike (or initial dislike) to classical singing comes from the fact that since the mid-20th century most of us grew up with popular crooning into a microphone. And of course live singing in school or so but this usually be laypeople without trained voices. So classical singing sounds strange, mannered and artificial in many cases to many listeners.

That said, there is no singing in the Soldier's Tale but recitation/acting. I think for the essential strangeness of this piece it is important not to have only the music (not familiar enough with the full version of Pulcinella incl. singing)
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal