Recovering...

Finally getting over the upper respiratory infection I've been carrying all last week. It's taken handfuls of pills and gallons of drink every day to do so, but all things considered I'm not complaining. A string of power outages at work have forced me home to try and salvage some productivity on my trusty laptop, so as I sit here I'll share a rare (and I mean RARE) moment of detente between the two cats in the house: Zoe (left) and the new boy Gus (right).

SilverBall Heroes vs. Video Invaders

Turns out I have an upper respiratory infection, which requires me to take an assload of pills (antibiotics, steroids, and other goodies) and drink like a fish. So while I've been lying low today working on that, I ran across this blast from the past:



This is the last six minutes of a 1982 film called Arcade Attack. You can find out more about it here.

The last time I saw this was when I was five. I'd gotten up before dawn and trudged out to the TV in the front room. Kept the overhead light off and turned the TV on with the sound really low to not wake everyone else up. Probably didn't catch any of the earlier parts of the movie, but I'm not sure any context or anything would have lessened the impact this had on me. The silver pinball character stayed with me the most over the years. Once the internet came along, I'd search every so often for clues on what the hell this was. Finally I hit on the right term combo, and voila! Arcade Attack.

Enjoy!

Sick

I've been fighting a cold all day, as anyone watching my Tweets can attest. I'm attributing my lack of posting to the slow and all-encompassing mental shutdown that being sick brings on. True, I was a Viking this morning and went to work for basically a full day today, but repeating that tomorrow is probably not happening. No BSB tonight and comics tomorrow would be a miracle. Now off for more drink to keep hydrated.

Music For A Darkened Knight

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES was one of, if not THE most influential American animated television shows of the last 15 years. Coming in the wake of Tim Burton's BATMAN films, it raised the bar for action cartoons by being smart, stylistic, expertly cast, and masterfully scored. Shows coming after B:TAS have had to acknowledge its accomplishments, either in carrying on its template or making a conscious break from it. But in all the time since it finished its original run in September 1995, the show's Emmy-winning score has never had an official release available to the public. Until now.

In December, La-La Land Records put out a 2-CD compilation that covers musics from 11 of the series' episodes, as well as the title themes and an 18-page booklet with liner notes from writer Paul Dini, Danny Elfman, Daniel Schweiger, and Eddie Gorodetsky. Shirley Walker, the series' lead composer, passed away in 2006. But in one of the set's best treats, Walker is heard discussing the main theme on a piano and giving an impromptu lesson on how it could be rearranged and manipulated over the course of many episodes. There is also a 14-minute "Gotham City Overture" that compiles themes for many of the series' main characters. The music presented throughout the set runs the gamut from whispering to thunderous, brooding to playful, triumphant to tragic. I've had my copy since yesterday and have been listening to it non-stop since.

The set was limited to 3000 copies, and last time I checked they said there were less than 500 left. So if this sounds like something you might want (and it should), click over to their site and order your copy ASAP.

1/29 EDIT - Under 200 copies left! Go go go!

1/31 EDIT - Sold out!

Setting Up Shop

Still getting settled here at Blogger; tweaking the gadgets and playing with some of the tools. Hope to get back into the swing of things soon. It's been probably seven months or so since I did this on any kind of regular basis.