The Wild Blog in the West

For my articles about Les Miserables , I discussed the various positives and negatives of the different albums, at least five if you don't count the original French concept album and the movie soundtrack.  One reader asked me what album tracks I used to create my idea of the definitive Les Miz soundtrack.  I'll go through each track below, with an explanation as to why I chose it over the others.  Note that I created my "Ultra" version before the movie soundtrack was released, but I'll give some thoughts as to which of the movie tracks would be best suited for an "Ultra" version. Overture/Work Song: Broadway Cast.  I use this album for a lot of the early Valjean tracks because I feel as though Wilkinson is in the best of voice here, though I suppose London would work as well.  While John Own Jones sounds great on the Les Miserables Live! album, I consider Wilkinson to be the definitive Valjean. On Parole/The Bishop: Tenth Anniversary Cast.  This is

This is a bit of a cheat, I admit.  Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies is not a proper movie musical.  Rather, the cinematic version of this sequel to The Phantom of the Opera  is merely a filmed performance of the stage musical.  However, having done such an in-depth review of Phantom , I can't pass this one by. Often, the stage musical is filmed after a botched attempt at adapting it to the screen, to demonstrate how the musical is supposed to be.  Such was the case with the Final Performance of Rent , and the 25th Anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera .  Other times, the stage musical is filmed so that those who likely will never be able to see it live can still see what it's about.  That's likely the case with Love Never Dies , which won't be arriving on Broadway any time soon. It almost feels cruel to kick a musical when it's down.  The critical shredding of  Love Never Dies has been universal.  Most of it is of the nature of "Yo

A little bird told me how Series Six went down, and how it most recently ended this past Christmas.  I won't blog about my impressions until after all episodes air in the United States, but with one or two exceptions, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Stay tuned.

Okay, that was a bad play on words, I admit.  Telltale's Game of Thrones is definitely not boring, even if at times it feels one note. For those who haven't played the game yet, there be spoilers below! What is Telltale's Game of Thrones ?  For the uninitiated, Telltale Games is a gaming company that produces graphic adventure series, many in multiple chapters.  Its Game of Thrones Season One follows House Forrester, bannermen to House Glover and Stark family loyalists.  In the books, House Forrester is mentioned in passing, little more than a hill clan.  In the episodic series, which follows the show, House Forrester is a minor noble house with the motto: "Iron from Ice." The story begins on the night of the Red Wedding, where the Forrester patriarch, Gregor the Good, is slain by deceitful Freys.  Before he succumbs, he gives his squire, Gared Tuttle, a mysterious message: "The North Grove must never be lost."  Gared returns to the Forr

Happy Halloween, everyone! Maybe some day I'll work up the courage to watch an actual scary movie.  Until then, watching Republican presidential debates is enough. So what's new?  I'm steadily moving along with writing my second novel, the sequel to my Victorian novel Rage and Regret .  About 300 pages written, not as many as I'd hoped, but still steady progress.  One difficulty is that unlike the first novel, there are about 3-4 distinct plot lines I'm trying to steer to fruition, and not all of them are behaving properly. At some point soon, I will also need to refocus attention on peddling the first novel.  I had taken a break to focus on writing the second, because peddling a novel is such a job in and of itself, with all of the ups and downs that entails. I can't pretend that I will have time to update every week as I have in the past.  There's just too much on my plate.  However, I do hope to provide updates 2-3 times a month, on topics tha

My sister loves Seinfeld .  I don't.  I don't get the brand of humor where people overreact to small incidents, usually incidents that aren't really that bothersome.  And yet, what does it say that I absolutely love movies that consist of people doing nothing but going crazy at small things? It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that humor is highly subjective.  Reasons one person finds certain situations funny can be a complete mystery to someone else.  I can't fully explain why I'm such easy prey for the smart "stupid" movie, but I'm going to try. The smart "stupid" movie is usually part of the parody genre, which mocks movie trends and offers insights into the mindset of a specific era.  When done right, the smart "stupid" movie can leave you rolling on the floor with laughter, while also recognizing that the movie just gets it  somehow.  When done wrong, the smart "stupid" movie is just... stupid.

Beware of spoilers! Inside Out , Pixar's latest release, tells a surprisingly complex story of what goes on inside one girl's mind as she confronts major changes in her life.  Yet it could also serve as a study of how extroverts routinely undervalue introverts, to everyone's peril. The movie revolves around an 11-year old girl named Riley who has just moved from Minnesota with her parents to a run-down house in San Francisco (that probably cost $2 million *cough*).  Riley goes from perpetually happy-go-lucky to confused and withdrawn, in part due to the fact that her mental "control room" is in disarray.  That's because Joy, one of her five anthropomorphic emotions and the one who steers her reactions on a day-to-day basis, accidentally got sucked into Riley's long-term memory along with Sadness, leaving Fear, Anger, and Disgust to run the show.   Inside Out  chronicles Joy and Sadness's attempts to return to the control room to save Riley from f