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DANSE MACABRE

Oct 28, 2023 | MUSIC, MUSIC, ROCK, ROCK

Danse macabre is Duran Duran‘s new work due out Oct. 27 just in time for Halloween.

Actually, the idea for Danse macabre came from the Halloween-themed performance at the Encore Theatre at the Wynn in Las Vegas on Oct. 30 and 31 a year ago.

Yes, I know, I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing either, and yet it’s all true.

Let’s say that from that start to the final album the dance more than macabre was intense and produced three unreleased, three new versions from their discography and six covers.

Covers are always a big risk, that’s a fact, however I regardless appreciate the tribute to pieces of music history.

Paint it black is a song that I like very much and that’s all I’m going to say.

Spellbound by Siouxie and the Banshees thanks to Stranger Things is now appreciated even by non-boomers, who knows if they will even listen to the Duran Duran version.

Definitely Bury a friend by Billie Eilish is a great point of contact.

And with regard to Psycho Killer contact point was the passion for Tina Weymouth that John Taylor discovered shares with Victoria De Angelis.

When you say Talking Heads …

Here is what John had to say about it

Sharing, cooperation are concepts I love, just as I love rock characters, and by rock I don’t mean simply music.

Can a macabre dance be rock?

I don’t know, what I do know is that Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, and on this occasion also Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo somehow continue the thread that we are following together.

If we trace it backwards we go back to Lux Æterna by Metallica, and earlier to Memento Mori by Depeche Mode, all the way to last October with Muse and You make me feel like it’s Halloween.

So are you ready for the Danse Macabre?

A HAUNTING IN VENICE

Nov 19, 2022 | MOVIES, MOVIES

If I say A haunting in Venice what do you think?

Curiosity, enthusiasm, and even a little bit of awe, for me.

What happens when several things you particularly like add up by blending together?

The perfect recipe.

Though the risk increases because the expectation is high.

And I would say that this is definitely the case with A Haunting in Venice i.e., the new movie coming out in 2023 that will see Kenneth Branagh acting under the quintessential mustache: those of Hercule Poirot.

The first element that strikes me: Venice!

“My” Venice, you know by now.

But which Queen Agatha book are we talking about?

A Haunting in Venice grew out of Hallowe’en party, a book published in 1969.

Shall we read together a few lines from the first two pages?

Or we can listen to

Agatha Christie therefore brings us back to the subject of All Saints.

But … Venice?

In a statement shared with the press, Branagh said, “This development of the character of Hercule Poirot, as well as the Agatha Christie franchise is based on a complex and little-known mystery story set on Halloween in a pictorially enchanting city...”

The screenplay is by Michael Green, among his work I would recall Blade Runner 2049 just to get your thoughts.

20th Century Studios described the adaptation, written by Michael Green, as a disturbing supernatural thriller in which Poirot, now retired in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, reluctantly attends a séance in a decaying, haunted mansion, during which one of the guests is murdered. The detective thus finds himself in a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

Certainly quite a leap of imagination from Woodleigh Common … but if it’s jumping to Venice … we trust!

By the way, Kenneth Branagh decided to start filming right on Halloween leaving one doubt: the cast has been announced, but for now we can only speculate what the roles will be.

Do you want to give it a try?

Kyle Allen
Camille Cottin
Jamie Dorman
Tina Fey
Jude Hill
Ali Khan
Emma Laird
Kelly Reilly
Riccardo Scamarcio
Michelle Yeoh

YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE IT’S HALLOWEEN

Oct 22, 2022 | A COFFEE WITH, MUSIC, ROCK

You make me feel like it’s Halloween the first time I heard this electronic gothic track by Muse I thought it could be a compliment. Cool!

However, this song lyrics are about feeling trapped.

Thinking of a situation with no way out, do you find yourself imagining horror movie scenarios?

Muse certainly played with this concept.

Tribute or parody?

The video was edited by Jesse Lee Stout: Muse Creative Director for Metaform Studio, direction is by Tom Teller.

Among so many references, do you want to mention some?

There are several interpretations of You make me feel like it’s Halloween, mainly originated by the final phrase: but you are the caretaker.

In an interview Matt Bellamy jokingly stated that there were too many songs about Christmas and it was time for someone to celebrate some other holiday, like Halloween for example.

What do you think about?

Over these twenty years undoubtedly Muse with their hits accustomed us to different kind of emotions.

I have always been impressed first and foremost by the powerful charge that Matthew Bellamy & Co. manage to exude, but also by their trademark flair combined with a completely unique genre that initially made it complicated to include them into a defined musical genre.

What is your favorite among their songs?

I know, it’s not easy to choose, I can’t rank them, although I have a special connection with some in particular.

In light of this we can perhaps reconsider You make me feel like it’s Halloween more for the message than the horror quotes, would you agree?

On October 26 Muse will be at Alcatraz in Milan great way to feel in the Hallooween mood.

How about you? When do you feel like it’s Halloween?

TOHorror

Oct 16, 2021 | CULTURE, MOVIES

The TOHorror Fantastic Film Fest will take place in Turin from the 19^thto 24^thof October, are you a lover of the genre?

Obviously I was captured by the logo with the profile of the cat next to the Mole Antonelliana, but the reason why I was interested is I 12 passi – The 12 steps …

I already told you about Black Ink podcasts, advising you to listen to her stories.

Now Serena is among the finalists of the contest Il gatto nero – The black cat and I can only say CHAPEAU.

The official page opens with a quote from Edgar Allan Poe and therefore I would say that there is only the classic “nothing to tell about,” but it closes with something less universally known: Donald Barthelme “The aim of literature … is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.”

Donald Barthelme was also called “modern Dadaist” and in fact, here I am trying to focus on that strange hairy object of which he speaks, but hoping to have saved the heart.

But let’s go back to TOHorror, I don’t know if you follow this event but I would say that the occasion is tempting also in view of the period: All Saints or Halloween or Samhain or Nos Galan Gaeaf whatever you want, and I would say that the ideas are certainly interesting.

The TOHorror website tells us that the first edition of the film festival, dated 1999, had none other than Dario Argento as godfather, but does not mention an event in my opinion epochal that instead I recommend you to see absolutely:

the director Tiziano Sossi explains that the original version is 76 minutes long, and therefore, researching I found this very precious translation of Fucinemute which represents an unmissable document!

Especially after the part of the interview we listened to, I would quote this passage from the interview, which particularly struck me:

“I moved when I was 5 years old to Kentucky, in a boring and very small town in south of United Stated and everything that I learned about evil, everything that I know about I have learned in that little town, from people there“.

This in my opinion is true horror! Am I wrong?

Ok, let’s change range:

“My parents gave me enormous gifts, my fahter gave me a movie camera but he gave me music, he was a music professor and he gave me the joy of music, I growth around it, listen to it was the soundtrack of my life.”

Wow. What to say? Don’t you get at least two / three thousand questions?

And you? Would you like to tell what the soundtrack of your life is like?