Let's have a salon

[jenett]

Several years ago, I ran a series of weekly salon posts, where I'd post a topic to get us started, people would show up in the comments, and conversation would ensue. Now seems a good time to try them again!

(You should not feel restrained to keep on this topic! Start other topics! Encourage topic drift! That's part of the point. Feel free to ask random questions, there's a chance someone might know about the thing.)

This week's question

What are you learning right now that you're really interested by? (That might be a project for work, for personal stuff, a gaming geekery thing, a book you're reading, a podcast you're listening to, the fact you're learning a lot about Dreamwidth and how it works this week, or anything else.)

What do you like about it? What are you finding more challenging?

Things currently contemplating

I'm currently reading Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones, which is well-researched and has a really interesting structure where he's looking at different pieces of it through small slices (individual people, towns, situations) and tracing back to the origins as much as possible. I really like books where the information part is well done, but the structure creates connections between pieces of information in helpful and new ways.

Notes:

* Consider this a conversation in my living room, only with a lot more seating. I reserve the right to redirect, screen, and otherwise moderate stuff, but would vastly prefer not to have to.
* If this works this week, I'll do an updated FAQ and continue.
* If you don't have a DW account or want to post anonymously, please include a name we can call you in this particular post. (You can say AnonymousOne or your favourite colour or whatever. Just something to help keep conversations clear.)
* If you've got a question or concern, feel free to PM me.

Comments

[teigh_corvus]

This week has been the slow but steady increase of Thoughts on The Monster Show [that is, the horror genre]. I'm running roughly three threads currently - listening to audio ride-thrus of the Haunted Mansion, listening to novelty monster rock [mostly from the 50s] and horror film scores [50s through 80s], and getting obsessed with King Kong. Though, the obsession isn't Giant Apes exactly, but more WHY this branch of the creature feature continues to fascinate.

[dejla]

Can you give us some names of those scores? I would love to listen to them. Someone once told me that the reason Werewolf of London was so frightening because it had NO musical score. You had no warning of the next scary thing.

[teigh_corvus]

Absolutely! And yes, the absence of music in a horror film can be just as nerve-wrecking as an eerie score. It's more than the silence that unnerves too- the lack of score in American Werewolf in London sets the events of the film more firmly in reality. The moments of horror are all the more shocking because there's no warning, yes - but the fact that everything seemed normal, even banal, up to that point makes the scares so much worse.

Scores I love:

Possible fave of all is Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for John Carpenter's The Thing. That's some quality atmospheric dread- I'm forever using tracks in mixtapes/playlists. You can find the entire score on youtube.

Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind's work for The Shining is excellent [and was a game-changer for electronic music overall.]Check out the Main Title and De Nautura Sonoris No. 2.

Goblin was is an Italian Prog Rock band that has done a bunch of scores, particularly from the early 70s through the 80s, and are known for their collaboration with the director Dario Argento. My favorite is their work for Suspiria. It's jarring and weird, which is 100% ideal for the film, which is 'the closest we come to filming the experience of having a nightmare'. [It took me ages to connect with that film until I heard that - once you frame it as a nightmare, the whole thing makes sense. In the way dreams make sense when your in them.] Check out the title track.

I am very fond of John Carpenter's synth scores, despite their repetitive nature. [Though the repetition in the Halloween theme is a perfect aural manifestation of Michael Myers relentlessness, IMO.]My favorites are Laurie's Theme from Halloween and the Main Theme for Prince of Darkness.

Gene Moore's organ music in Carnival of Souls is genius. It's old school house of horrors spooky. And speaking of old school - Creature from the Black Lagoon has a great score.

And let's not forget Danny Elfman. :D Beetlejuice is a joy. And I love the Tales from the Crypt opening theme.

Not a lot to truly modern stuff here, this is were I'm mired currently. One of the Haunted Mansion ride-thrus I'm obsessed with mashes the movie soundtrack with the ride dialogue and is delightful. Unfortunately, it makes me want to watch the movie again, which is really not wise. That film is dreadful.

[dejla]

I think Phillip Glass did a score for Dracula -- not a film score, just because the story interested him. I have it, but I don't remember how the music sounds.