Film Score Blogs by Bill Wrobel I must’ve been quite tired after ten-hour days at work this week: I slept ten hours this last morning! Monday (Columbus Day holiday) was the last active film music research day during my two-week vacation when my wife and I went with permission to Paramount where I spent a bit over two hours on the photo-stats of Herrmann’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (see Blog # 9). It was a great day to end a long research period, although I wish I had more time to be able to visit Columbia, UCSB, and other fine places to research film scores. Columbia would’ve been good to return to since I wanted to continue my study of the Jarre score Lawrence of Arabia and also R�zsa’s score for the Bogart vehicle (in this case, a tank!) titled Sahara. Malcolm Arnold’s score for Heroes of Telemark would be good to look at since few of his scores are readily available for study here in America. His The Bridge on the River Kwai is at Columbia but only the “March” (adaptation I believe). Other interesting cues to check at Columbia would be Jubal (composed the year I was born) and Love Has Many Faces both by Raksin (who passed away very recently). Also his City Without Men is there. I never watched or heard any of those three films. Perhaps they’ll be aired on Turner Classic Movies (the movies are not available on dvd). Arizona by Victor Young might be interesting, although once again I need to see the film. Mancini’s full score to Experiment in Terror would be good to study. As given below in an earlier blog, I worked a bit of his Charade and Peter Gunn of that overall genre or character of music, but the full score was not available there at UCLA in the Henry Mancini Collection. Now: I had almost no time for film music concerns the last several days due to my ten-hour days at work. I had a few minutes to check some Internet sites, including various film music discussion forums. The most active ones are the Film Score Message Board, Talking Herrmann, R�zsa Forum, Filmus-L, and a few others. So some of the discussion forum threads have been far less than wholesome lately! : ) I’ve given it some thought over the last few days as I walked my route and came up with several observations that I would now like to remark on (in terms of general principles): I noted how devoid of humor those angry/sarcastic posters are. Deadly serious! This in itself would indicate some sort of lack of balanced perspective on their part. They are, in a sense, hypnotized in their myopic perspective. They do not see clearly. Moreover, they engage in an attacking/sarcastic mode of behavior, overtly putting down the object of their displeasure, or even threatening them in at least a veiled manner (usually in the standard “Don’t mess with me because I am no one to be reckoned with” or some such ego-strutting). Or they may simply state, in effect, “Well, I’m not going to read the other person’s reply anyway.” There is no balanced or reasonable approach or healthy discussion. If, say, you are under attack by someone of a verbal and accusatory nature, I recommend you take that old advice I heard long ago: What other people think about you is none of your business! Besides, what they have to say about you or their dislike of something has far more to do about how they feel about themselves than how they feel about you or the subject under discussion. It shows their character or beliefs, not yours. Their actions speak far louder than their words. Whenever they direct aggressiveness overtly against a particular individual, they don’t have to face themselves. As long as they point to you and insist, “You are the cause of my misery!” they do not have to face themselves. They do not take self-responsibility and eventual self-mastery for their own reactions to life and people they encounter. Instead they project their dissatisfactions and blame others or life in general. They feel quite justified in their beliefs because they feel they are right and adamant to prove a point. By directly arguing with them (and thereby trying to prove your own ego points), this will set up even more resistance and entrenched held views. Arguments do not usually alter the opinions of either side of a dispute but only tend to intensify the fixed emotionally (like unresolved grudges) powering the beliefs. And most egos are too preoccupied being defensive about how they are being treated according to their standards. You inadvertently “touch their buttons,” say, and they become offended and go into an attack mode. I’m reminded of that funny Pee Wee Herman (not Herrmann!) movie scene where one person says to Pee Wee, “You’re an idiot!” and Pee Wee retorts, “I know you are but what am I?!” and it just keeps intensifying! Therefore you can’t afford to jump into that game because it’s like quicksand that will quickly sink you in deeper, and what you say in a flaming manner will only later haunt you or get back to you in some way, and you’ll regret your words. It takes two to fight. So how can you help people who believe (not necessarily based on truth or fact but on their own faulty assessments) that you are making them miserable, aggravated, unhappy? Answer: You leave them alone! That’s the best help. They will believe what they want to believe, and any help or understanding that they may gain will most certainly not come from you (the object of their projection)! Take it for granted, say, that they are having a bad week or nursing a grudge, that they should be left alone and that they will work it out and find their own way. Stay away from them. This is common sense psychology. Exhibit toleration, not a counter-attack, because it’ll get back to you and hurt you. Do not argue tit for tat because that’s again trying to “prove a point”. Use reason instead. Anger and undue criticism is a person’s own internal displeasure based upon his or her demands of how other people should behave: “You should act the way I want you to act.” Anger says, “You’re not ok and I’m going to put you down” or simply demands, “You must be different than what you are.” Sometimes if a grudge is behind it, then there may even be a desire to punish (“I’ll show you!” or “I don’t get mad, I get even!”). Another saying that has a ring of truth that I learned from somebody long ago is, “If they’re not family, let them go. Don’t worry about it.” Family comes first. Don’t let non-family individuals disturb your equilibrium. They’re not worth it, he said. Family first, close friends next, acquaintances a distant third, and strangers last. Ideally it is family that cares about your feelings, and you their feelings. So [paraphrasing Seth here] whenever you meet someone, king or pauper, who says that you are “evil” (not good enough, of bad character, etc.), then run as fast as you can! Whenever anyone tries to make you feel less than you are, and make you believe in your deficiencies rather than encourage your strengths and abilities, then run as fast as you can! You can tell them “Leave me alone” and then do your creative thing, but be watchful of such people (usually power/controlling/critical types) and let them be. Usually power types are offended when someone defies their will. Those who speak to you in terms of guilt and say you should be what they think you should be, ignore them. Say “Thank you” or “Have a nice day!” and let them go. It does no good, as given earlier, to directly confront them. Take their criticism and playfully throw it out the window and let it bounce around for a while! Now: A good temper is important, I think. Telling someone to “Go to blazes!” after cutting you off on the road that could’ve resulted in an accident is natural. I heard when I was a kid the expression, “Be mad, but sin not.” I also heard, in effect, “One without a temper is in bad shape, but one who can’t control his temper is in still worse shape!” I know because, astrologically speaking, I have Mars square Uranus, and I had to learn things about the spontaneous expression of anger! But I would get mad and not hold grudges because I had already expressed my hurt or took steps to go around the other person’s impediment. But the tendency to rule, to be dictatorial (instead of engaging in a 50-50 proposition) shows an over-bearing attitude, over-lording over others, and usually this shows in sarcastic speech. Anyway, he advised (1) no reaction of ill will towards the attacker; (2) no feeling of hurt, injury, or injustice since the attacker is simply an instrument or manifestation of your own karma; (3) no reply until reasonable detachment and calm is established; (4) if you are clearly in the wrong, acknowledge it and right the wrong; (5) try to see the other person’s point of view. He stated that the ideal reaction is to become ice-cold, the mind set in pure reason by getting detached and gaining perspective, being logical and exact, and hold emotions in check. I do not necessarily agree with all of this, especially with the emotions since the Puritan ethic in the old Brit (and Gnostic) standard was to overtly suppress feelings because the mind was considered “superior.” Emotions are a part of your being and need to be expressed or acknowledged as you feel them. Basically he was stating not to be “emotional” and then engage in defamatory speech. Philosophically, he discussed how that once you defend yourself, you automatically enter Maya (illusion)—the Maya that you can be hurt by another’s comments, the Maya of the ego that feels slighted, and so forth. Then he talks about the ideals of harmlessness (towards self and others) and of service (giving your best). Anyway, I think I pretty much exhausted this topic! I may occasionally indulge in such philosophical monologues now and then (I have a very active Sagittarius-9th house!). So you can skip it if you do not want to read it! Hopefully, however, you can have some fun with the site. The astrology papers are Off-Topic papers because I do not wish to go thru the trouble of creating a separate site just for a few occasional astrology papers. The blogs are primarily film music related, but I believe in spontaneous “off-topic” remarks as spirit (and circumstances) moves me. Ideas seek expression, and I will get those ideas “out of my system” to free up other focuses. I bid you ALL a find good evening! [7:28 pm] |