tv and films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

[From Usenet: 2.18.99 0000]

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[Note: This was originally a post to the alt.tv.star-trek.voyager Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]

  1. THE MUSIC WAS LACKING BIG TIME! Music is a powerful tool to help a movie have depth, feeling and emotion. The music could have been so much more deep and could have added so much more to the feeling of the movie.

I’d have to watch it again (hurrah for VCR’s) to really make a judgment, but there was at least one instance where it really caught my ear. During one of the shots of the shuttle approaching the borgplex, there were a couple low, twangy notes like someone plucking two of the lower strings on a piano. Caught my ear mainly because the last time I can remember hearing that theme used was in ST:TMP as the Enterprise is making its entrance into V’ger. Visually similar shots (though the one in ST:TMP was much more visually impressive (okay, and about half an hour longer) than VOY:DF’s borgplex entrance), good use of old themes. Which brought another thought into my feeble little brain. In advance, please forgive me if this has been hashed and re-hashed many times over in the past, I just subscribed to these groups after watching VOY:DF.

Has anyone ever thought much of the possibility that the planet that transformed the Voyager probe into V’ger was the Borg home planet, before they got to the point of striking out on their own and assimilating everything that sneezed twice in their general direction? The general purpose seems to be very similar — it’s not that big a step from “learn all that is learnable, collect all the possible knowledge in the universe, then merge with the creator” to the Borg’s assimilation of other species and knowledge bases into their own. Additionally, it was hypothesized in ST:TMP that the Voyager probe had fell through a black hole to this ‘machine planet’, been repaired/reprogrammed there, and sent away. Mix in a little time distortion along with the black hole, and V’ger could have been sent on its voyage back to Earth long before the Borg advanced to a point where they could move out on their own, and still have time to fill its databanks and make it back home. Just a thought…would be interested to hear if others have explored this line of reasoning. Would love to see it explored in a show at some point, but that may just be fanboy drooling (grin).

Incidentally, what happened to all the knowledge that V’ger transmitted to Earth?

And while I’m at it, I suppose I could throw in the Transformers homeworld/Borg homeworld parallels, too…. Are there any? Probably…I’m just blowing smoke out of my ass at this point, but if I can think of it now, it’s probably been beaten to death before now…

[From Usenet: 1.19.99 0000]

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[Note: This was originally a post to the rec.music.industrial Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]

In article <77v6ki$eo...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, diakon_rad...@newempire.com wrote:

She is the Mariah Carey of the Jihad! :-)

If you go to any gothic clubs you have probably heard her voice on back up on the remix / latest version of Sisters Of Mercy track “Temple Of Love”.

She is one of few artists who managed to cross the barriers between Hebrew and Arabic listeners in the Middle East.

Incidentally, she just provided the voice for one of the supporting characters (unfortunately, I can’t remember which one) in the animated film ‘Prince of Egypt’ – I figured it was her when I heard her sing, then checked the credits to be sure.

[From Usenet: 12.26.98 0000]

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[Note: This was originally a post to the rec.arts.startrek.fandom Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]

Need help from someone out there – found somthing in my family’s house, trying to figure out if it’s worth anything.

Star Trek Book and Record set from Peter Pan Industries/Power Records (catalog #BR513), featuring the stories A Mirror for Futility and The Time Stealer, copyright 1976, still in it’s original shrinkwrap, unopened. One small (less than 1cm square) notch taken out of top right hand corner, otherwise undamaged.

Any ideas? Please e-mail me at djwo…@geocities.com, as I don’t frequent this newsgroup.

[From Usenet: 8.22.98 2300]

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[Note: This was originally a post to the alt.music.nin Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]

In article <6rl9d0$fv...@news.doit.wisc.edu>, Mother’s Little Helper <val...@stoned.com> wrote:

RaumKatze2 <raumkat...@aol.com> wrote:

> You can play any music with any movie or tv show, and there are bound to be syncronicities with lyrics, dynamics, rhythm, and other stuff.

One of the scariest exqamples of this was one day in 1995 when we noticed that Sesame Street was perfectly synched with the Sir Mix-a-Lot album we were listening to…it was scary.

One of the funniest I’ve seen was watching Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” in fast forward while listening to nin’s broken album. Fit way too well…funny as shit, too.

[From Usenet: 1.18.94 0513]

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[Note: This was originally a post to the rec.arts.movies Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]

In article <1994Jan18.042438.17...@midway.uchicago.edu>, s...@ellis.uchicago.edu (Charles P. Samenow) writes:

What are the differences between: DTS, Digital Dolby, Dolby, Dolby SR and THX?
-Charles
s…@midway.uchicago.edu

Well, I’m no expert, but here’s what I’ve gathered…

  • Dolby – uses the same techniques as your Dolby cassettes…noise reduction, basically.
  • DolbySR – the noise reduction, plus better placement of where the noises appear to be coming from in the theatre. Stands for Dolby Spectral Recording.
  • Digital Dolby – in addition to the normal sound track, a digital track is printed between the sockets of the film. When a theatre is equipped to read and reproduce this track, it results in near cd quality sound (no background hiss and pops), and also uses six tracks to place the sounds…one center, two front (left and right), two rear (left and right), and one subwoofer channel. End result-some of the best quality sound I’ve ever heard in a movie theater. When it’s used effectively, it can be really mind-blowing.
  • DTS – a similar technique to Digital Dolby, only developed by Sony (if I remember correctly) and Lucasfilm…which can cause some licensing conflicts in theatres already set up with Digital Dolby. Competing systems and all. Major difference…instead of using the space between the sprocket holes, the digital track is printed in a small strip on the edge of the film, which means the actual print can’t be quite as wide. I recently saw Schindler’s list in DTS, though, and didn’t see any noticeable difference in the width of the image.
  • THX – developed by Lucasfilm. Not so much an improvement in the sound itself, THX uses special placing of speakers and translation of the audio tracks to make sure no matter where in the theatre you sit, you get the true stereo effect…something which can suffer greatly towards the edges of a theatre in a non-THX environment.

Where’d I get all the info? Lots of reading, and working in the only theatre in Alaska to have Dolby Digital installed. Anchorage’s Fireweed theatre was (this may have changed by now) at the time the biggest Dolby Digital installation on the West Coast…the auditorium sits over 900. Digital installations has been done before, just not in an auditorium that large. Was a more than $10,000 upgrade to the existing system. Plus, though I don’t work there anymore, the licensing agreements have been settled to the point that it now has DTS also.

Incidentally, except for the DTS (because it’s from a different company), all of the systems are compatable. Using digital negates the need for normal Dolby (noise reduction for digital sound?), however it’s perfectly possible (and has been done) to have a movie recorded in both Dolby Digital and THX, and I suppose in both DTS and THX. Sounds incredible, too…