A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

A few days ago, writer Harry Turtledove (a novelist who specializes in the alternate history sub-genre of science fiction and is known for his Worldwar series, as well as his novel about Spanish-occupied Britain, Ruled Britannia ) posted this whimsical #70sChristmasList tweet on Twitter: #70sChristmasList Harvest gold refrigerator Avocado stove Betamax Quadraphonic sound system English Leather, or maybe Brut Cargo pants for the guys Hot pants for the women Platform shoes A leisure suit A case of Miller Lite Or of US-brewed (aka ruined) Löwenbräu Inspired by Mr. Turtledove, I've decided to share similar Christmastime wishlists across the decades, starting with the 1970s and ending with the 2010s. The wishlists are not real lists that I handed out to family and friends before the holidays. I mean, sure, Mom (and sometimes my older half-sister) would ask me to write a short list of things I wanted for either Christmas or my birthday, but more often than not my friends, who ...

© 1993 Intersound Inc. In December 1993, Roswell, Georgia's Intersound Inc. released The Complete Beethoven Symphonies, a five-CD box set which presented all nine of Ludwig van Beethoven's nine symphonies in digital surround sound. Along with Piano Masterpieces and other recordings, this box set was part of Intersound's "Classical Heritage" (or CH) collection. Because Intersound's business model was based on direct sales to record shops and big box stores such as the now-vanished Camelot Music and Circuit City rather than adding a separate (and pricier) distributor, box sets such as The Complete Beethoven Symphonies were not only easy to find but cheaper than similar collections by Deutsche Gramophone or Philips. And because the company focused at first almost exclusively on the classical repertoire, aficionados of Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Berlioz, Mozart, and Wagner who couldn't afford the offerings of the more prestigious labels could build up a de...

(C) 2007 Sony Classical and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On November 7, 2007, Sony Classical's Masterworks label released The Music of Star Wars: 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition, an eight-CD box set that reissued the three Special Edition soundtracks from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi in their full glory. In addition, the collection includes Star Wars: The Corellian Edition, a 2005 compilation of Star Wars' greatest hits from the six movies then in existence. (Lucasfilm was still an independent company and the Sequel Trilogy was something that existed only in the imaginations of a few hopeful fans.) Sony Classical Masterworks' concept? Repackage the CDs as replicas of the 1977, 1980, and 1983 original LP albums. (C) 2007 Sony Classical and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) And to complement the 434 minutes of composer-conductor John Williams' scores for the Original Trilogy, Sony also packed a CD-ROM which contains "digital fi...

In 1991, Sony Classical released The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, a 13-track album that features music composed by John Williams for the movies by director Steven Spielberg. Those compositions - marches, main title themes, and scene-specific cues - covered the first 15 years or so of what is one of the longest artistic partnerships in film history. As  Variety's film music writer Jon Burlingame states in the liner notes to Sony Classical's John Williams/Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection that there have been other famous director-composer duos: "Film historians often cite Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, for example, or Federico Fellini and Nino Rota; others might name Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, or Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini." But, as Burlingame points out: None, however, have been as long or as fruitful as the forty-three-year collaboration of Steven Spielberg and John Williams. None have encompassed such a wide range of subje...