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680601 Posts in 27601 Topics by 4068 Members - Latest Member: Dae Lims March 29, 2024, 01:31:53 PM
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201  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 22, 2015, 09:01:34 AM
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned...and I'm not ripping Mike or Bruce or anything but I'm certain that BD or DVD screeners do get sent to critics.  And surely if Mike or Bruce, or an assistant, asked for a screener of L&M they would be sent one.

Just for arguments sake, suppose such a request was made, and met with no response ? What then ?

Only guessing, perhaps not wanting to throw a whole media relations division (of Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions) under the bus, they (M&B) would probably say nothing; or something like what they have already said. 
202  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 22, 2015, 08:21:06 AM
Maybe Mike has heard NPP and seen L&M and just thought they sucked and is avoiding hurting Brian's feelings by pretending he hasn't?

That's very possible.  If you can't say anything nice...don't say anything at all right?
203  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 22, 2015, 08:11:33 AM
But they won't and that is the problem in a nutshell.

I hear you, I guess I just don't care about this as much as others do, apparently.  Whatever animus exists, if any, is between those guys.

That's not to say that I'm not above chuckling at Mike-isms.  He does come across as a domineering a-hole, but, conversely,  I also don't think it's okay to infantilize Brian, as some do. 

At the end of the day, I'm a Brian Wilson guy through and through, but I try not to like "care" about the inner politics.  I'm amused by it and think it can be very comical at times, but never entirely in a "tragic" sense.  Not anymore.  In 1966-1967, yes, "tragic".  In 2015, just amusing.
204  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 22, 2015, 07:46:53 AM
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned...and I'm not ripping Mike or Bruce or anything but I'm certain that BD or DVD screeners do get sent to critics.  And surely if Mike or Bruce, or an assistant, asked for a screener of L&M they would be sent one.

205  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love & Mercy Blu-Ray/DVD Official thread on: July 22, 2015, 07:33:47 AM
I prefer the physical product if for no other reason than it acts as my 'archival backup'.  Also, of course, the quality is superior in almost all cases. 

For movies, BD bandwidth allows for much higher bit-rate than even an HD download would.  And with music, CD offers 16/44 at minimum.  Hi-Rez downloads are nice, especially for material unavailable physically elsewhere.  But again, physical is always preferable to at least have on the shelf.  They I can rip my own.

With LOVE & MERCY, if no soundtrack is released, my plan is to take the BD and use DVD Audio Extractor on my Mac Book to rip the 24/48 audio.  That way, at least I can have in tact tracks of some of Atticus Ross' score.  Specifically, "Black Hole", "Headphones", and "Deep End".   The other parts of the score have dialog interspersed so those wouldn't be ideal.  All the more reason for the score to be released, in tact, separately. 

I think there's only like 15-20 minutes of actual score truthfully, maybe a little more, but not much.  In that case, a Hi-Rez download might be ideal over a physical release, unless they choose to flesh out a "soundtrack" with tracks.  Or, as I have mentioned elsewhere, ideally, there would be an "Isolated Score Track" included on the DVD/BD.  If that were the case, I would be able to use the DAE tool I mentioned to extract the isolated tracks in 24/48 for my own personal enjoyment.

Of course I would be on board with any of the above.  I've seen this film 11 times and may go for a 12th and final time tonight or tomorrow night.  My 12 year old son has a burgeoning interest in BW/BB music probably because of my enthusiasm and I may take him.  The run is finally up in my city I think.  So I'm on board with anything we can get for this film.  Which is why I'm so excited about the "Deleted Scenes" and the "Commentary Track", I'm clearly obsessed.
206  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love & Mercy Blu-Ray/DVD Official thread on: July 21, 2015, 10:21:34 PM
Don't get too excited, the video is nothing more than than the official US trailer...but..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkHYBjUZkWw

...there is a nice little surprise, Digital HD release date is 8/25.  That would, I presume, be the iTunes store, Google Play, Amazon, etc. 

Also, in addition to the BD and DVD coming out on 9/15 the film will be available On Demand (I assume that's like TW and Comcast On Demand rental) same day.
207  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: The Royal Tenenbaums ending (Sloop John B version) on: July 21, 2015, 06:47:01 PM
Nice work.  I had heard the stories about some screenings using The Beatles version of "Hey Jude" but not "Sloop John B" over the ending. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/alternateversions

I actually think "Sloop John B" works better for the scene, honestly.  Especially when juxtaposed with the grave marker.  LOL
208  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Hawthorne Sunset - New Beach Boys edit on: July 21, 2015, 11:50:03 AM
That opening sounds heavenly.

 Listening
209  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 21, 2015, 11:41:22 AM
This piece seems to have been written from a contrarian point of view and purposefully so. Trying to give voice to Mike and Bruce specifically in the wake of LOVE & MERCY. One could argue that Mike has been busy, especially since Carl passed, molding the public perception of the Beach Boys in his image. Maybe the writer fears that history will be cemented with Brian Wilson being now (rightly) being considered the craftsman behind it all (which he was). To those in the know, he always was that person.  

Articles like this tend to make me essentially say "Okay, we know, Mike contributed lyrics to some songs. We get it". Brian wrote lyrics with an array of collaborators. No one is writing articles like this in praise of Gary Usher, Roger Christian or Tony Asher.  Van Dyke Parks takes care of his own publicity.

And having said that, I don't have a huge problem with the article in general.  After a lot of the authors hyperbolic protestations, this is indeed a very fair-minded view of 'this whole world':

"It’s time to stop thinking of the Beach Boys in such black and white terms. The affection between Love and Brian Wilson seems very real, and Love, Johnston, and the Beach Boys are a living memorial to the spirit and friendship at the heart of the group."

The Beach Boys story isn't about assigning 'Heroes and Villains', that's too simplistic. It's ultimately about a plea to 'Add Some Music to Your Day'.  

It's about the music.

And speaking of music...  



I'm reminded of the old axiom: "Success has a million fathers, failure is an orphan."
210  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / NY Observer: 'Beyond the Life of Brian: The Myth of the ‘Lesser’ Beach Boys' on: July 21, 2015, 09:41:07 AM
http://observer.com/2015/07/beyond-the-life-of-brian-the-myth-of-the-lesser-beach-boys/



Quote
Of course when you interview Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys you’re going to have to ask them if they’ve seen Love and Mercy.

LOVE: No, I have not.

JOHNSTON: Who has time?

LOVE: We are going to end up doing about 165 shows this year.

JOHNSTON: I’m hoping I can see it on the airplane.

LOVE: Well, I think anytime they spell your name right it’s good for business, isn’t that what they say? Yes, there’s a lot of emotion about it, a lot of talk about it, but it’s a story of an aspect of Brian’s life—maybe not the most joyful one, or the most fun part of his life, but nonetheless… it’s about an aspect of his life.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Beach Boys.

Mike Love and Bruce Johnston shouldn’t have to spend their whole freaking lives apologizing for not being Brian Wilson.

You say to-MAY-toe; I say tuh-MAH-toe. You say Car-uh-BEE-en; I say Cuh-RIB-be-in. You, swept away on a trail of Alex Chilton-flavored pixie dust by the legend of wronged Brian Wilson and a belief in the ultimate superiority of all flawed geniuses to any other type of artists, say that Mike Love is a douche; I say that he has kept alive the legacy of one of America’s greatest bands and the vision of one of our greatest artists, and he has done this cheerfully, energetically—even with a little grace—and he’s done it in the face of a lot of obstructions, a pile of untimely deaths, and a plethora of know-it-all music critics.

“Everything you read is not based on fact,” Love comments. “I know what I did—and if I was brash, or outspoken sometimes, and someone without a sense of humor pins me with having a certain personality type that’s derogatory or even defamatory—well, I know what I did, what I wrote, what I’ve done with the group, what I’ve done with Brian.”

I like Mike Love. There, I said it. He seems very damn genuine, with an honest love for the songs and voices of Brian and Carl Wilson. He also has a very real and endearing commitment to environmentalism and transcendental meditation, and it’s hard not to like someone who starts singing virtually every time a Beach Boys title is mentioned. Bruce Johnston, who has been in the Beach Boys for 51 years, is also eminently likable, a true gearhead who talks about the bands’ evolving recording techniques with childlike joy.

Now back to our story.

Beginning in February 1964, the very soul of American electric pop was hijacked by the idea of Beatles. When the Beatles arrived, a luscious and diverse vein of American musical DNA was largely discarded by a generation of young bands who were seduced by the plugged-in Tin Pan Alley/Brill Building traditionalism of the Beatles.

It’s time to stop thinking of the Beach Boys in such black and white terms.

Circa 1966, one thing stood in the way of the near-complete obliteration of this American imprint on rock/pop. This was the Beach Boys. Their masterpiece, Pet Sounds, had seamlessly blended the smooth splendor of mid-century vocal pop with quirky yet empathic mod-culture-inflected compositions that referenced a gorgeous American tradition that the Beatles had eradicated. Jesus, that’s a helluva sentence. Pet Sounds proved that a pop group could make an album-length piece comparable with the greatest long-form works of Bernstein, Copland, Ives, and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The architect of Pet Sounds was Brian Wilson, a 24-year-old man who chose to withdraw into the studio to best serve his muse and his band.

“Why should the guy who is writing and producing be wasting away in Fargo, North Dakota, when he could be in the studio?” states Bruce Johnston, who replaced Wilson on the road. “Why would the man with ability to connect those dots be sitting in a motel in Atlanta when he could be in the studio? I never thought anything was strange about that. Think about his job—he writes the melodies, he has Mike co-write the lyrics with Gary Usher and a few other people, he starts arranging what the track’s gonna be, and in the studio he’s making the track come alive. He’s learning from the engineer, Chuck Britz, about EQ’s and other stuff like that, because he’s not learning anything over at Capitol, because they were breathing on him too hard. So he’s got three, four, five things to do at once! And then, what’s kind of just natural and a gift becomes a required thing to deliver, from the label. So everybody put the pressure on him.”

Pet Sounds marked the brilliant dawn of a new era for American pop, one that acknowledged the tumbling, misty, mesa-scraped and marsh-filled miles of American song while creating something startling and new. The next part of that story was supposed to be SMiLE.

SMiLE, which aspired to assemble an extraordinary mofungo of American folk tics, treasures, shadows, fears, and emerging technologies into a shockingly new yet completely user-friendly cantata, could have been the work that set the standard for an inventive and progressive American music.

And it’s time to stop blaming Mike Love for the collapse of SMiLE.

A strong manager, a strong A&R man, even a determined engineer could have saved SMiLE. It was so revolutionary in concept and execution that it needed an extremely patient and determined hand to bring it all together, to act as the pragmatic facilitator for Brian Wilson’s revolutionary vision (in fact, it took nearly three decades—and the dedicated, persistent and kind discipline of Darian Sahanaja—for SMiLE to be completed). Which leads to the second key point in the defenestration of SMiLE: Composed of fragments of art, folk, melody and ambience that needed to be assembled into an intricate, operatic-like framework, SMiLE essentially anticipated the kind of production that only digital and automated recording/mixing made practical; failing that, only a carefully notated score could have led to the album’s completion. The technology for the former wouldn’t exist for another 25 years, and the discipline for the latter was never summoned.

After the collapse of SMiLE, the Beach Boys kept going. Deal with it. f***, celebrate it.

SMiLE didn’t collapse because Mike Love didn’t like Van Dyke Park’s lyrics.

“There’s zero animosity between myself and Van Dyke,” Love calmly states. “At least not from my side, and I don’t think from his, either. I think he’s a fantastic, brilliant musician and a brilliant lyricist in a different way than I,” Love continues. “Because I like it when songs go to No. 1, or Top 10 (laughs). That’s my crass commercialism showing!”

“By the way,” Johnston chimes in, “he plays a 100-year-old accordion on ‘Kokomo.’ ”

“That certainly gives a lie to this idea that we don’t like Van Dyke,” adds Love. “I like Van Dyke. Van Dyke is a modern-day Lewis Carroll, in my estimation. He’s brilliant and he’s talented and he’s gifted and that stuff, but see, Mike Love, see, he likes to write a lyric after thinking about how the tenses fit in, and ‘Is it just going to appeal to the moment in time, or is it going to appeal to all generations?’ I try to communicate something, I look at lyrics as a way to communicate. Like ‘Good Vibrations’—the track was really strange, I mean different, strange, unique, weird, but in a good way, but still, what are people going to think about it in Omaha, that kind of thing? So, I thought, everybody understands boy-girl, and I’m picking up good vibrations, she’s giving me the excitations, so that’s my contribution to that record.”

Not only did the collapse of SMiLE halt an important thread in the development of American pop, but it also significantly obstructed our ability to think clearly about the Beach Boys, whose career must be seen as inclusive of Pet Sounds/SMiLE, not exclusive of it. Many see the Beach Boys’ post-SMiLE work as secondary apologia for The Life of (Not Having) Brian. But between 1967 and 1973, the largely Brian-less Beach Boys produced some of their most endearing work: Friends, Sunflower, Surf’s Up, 20/20, and Holland are each essential albums, and each echo the Americana-rooted progressive folk rock sculpted on Pet Sounds and SMiLE, but with an overlay of the wistful California breezes and acid-age darkness. And Smiley Smile, the almost-whispered reworking of SMiLE, is a treasure; although it is more elegiac than ecstatic, taken entirely on its own it is a sunlight-filled antidote to the prevalent psychedelic memes.

‘I like it when songs go to No. 1, or Top 10 (laughs). That’s my crass commercialism showing!’—Mike Love

Mike Love—and by extension, Bruce Johnston—shouldn’t have to spend his whole freaking life apologizing because he’s not Brian Wilson. Mike Love loves the Beach Boys, too, and he’s been waving their flag for 54 years. See, we don’t beat up Pink Floyd because their certifiable genius, Syd Barrett, only stuck around for an album and a half, do we? The Beach Boys kept on going. Deal with it. f***, celebrate it.

This summer there are two versions of Brian Wilson’s dream out on the road. I’ve seen both. On his solo tour, Brian Wilson surrounds himself with a large and gifted band that reproduces his majestic vocal and instrumental landscapes in exacting and vivid glory; but as wonderful as the show is, Brian’s actual participation in the proceedings does not seem strictly necessary, and that makes the whole thing a slightly odd endeavor. The Beach Boys (Love, Johnston, guitarists Scott Totten and Jeff Foskett, bassist Brian Eichenberg, keyboardist Tim Bonhomme, and drummer John Cowsill) are a tough and engaged outfit with the feel of a real band, plugged into little amps and playing their freaking hearts out to win over the audience. To tell you the truth, I preferred the Beach Boys.

It’s time to stop thinking of the Beach Boys in such black and white terms. The affection between Love and Brian Wilson seems very real, and Love, Johnston, and the Beach Boys are a living memorial to the spirit and friendship at the heart of the group.

“We used to laugh, falling down laughing, and sing,” Mike Love remembers, “Brian would come over to my house and sing Everly Brothers songs or doo-wop songs and we’d learn Four Freshmen arrangements. I never remember a time when there wasn’t music in our family. The first time I remember him singing, was him singing ‘Danny Boy’ in my grandmother Wilson’s lap. So we go back… we’ve known each other all our lives, and there’s a tremendous amount of love and respect and rapport with each other, to the point where inane humor and 100 percent dedication and devotion to music is what we have in common. So if there’s anything that sounds divisive there, well, I have nothing but awe and respect for Brian’s musical abilities, and love for him as a person, as a cousin, as a family member. Strip away all the misconceptions and the divisiveness and that’s how it is.”
211  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 20, 2015, 10:20:58 PM
I share your frustration, Wirestone.  I still have my fingers crossed.
212  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love & Mercy Blu-Ray/DVD Official thread on: July 20, 2015, 10:10:33 PM
To me the difference between a really good (anamorphic widescreen) DVD presentation and a Blu-ray is sort of the difference between 480i NTSC signal and 720p.  I purposefully didn't say 1080p.  

If the Blu-ray is mastered very well, visually it can make a DVD counterpart of the same title burst into tears.  Generally speaking though, there's a 25%-35% increase in visual data that your eyes can perceive.  That's not based on science, it's based on me trying to apply a metric that's easily understood.

Generally though, if the prices are even remotely close, always go with the Blu-ray, there's really no reason not to.  Only unless playback is an issue for you, then your answer is settled anyway.

As Misterlou mentioned, the sound also greatly benefits from the additional bandwidth Blu-ray provides.  Where as a typical DVD movie release is a Dual Layer with roughly 8.5 GB of space to utilize for all of the video and audio of the main feature and supplemental material.  Blu-ray has up to 50 GB of space to present a higher resolution and clarity.  That goes of course not just for the visual presentations but audio.  It's very common for studios to include a lossless HD master for the audio so you are getting uncompressed audio and typically at 24-bit/48 khz.

For a film like LOVE & MERCY, you would essentially be getting a better than cd aural experience from the soundtrack.  So those bits like the one that opens the film "Black Hole" by Atticus Ross, or any of the others, will sound stunning on even a general home audio set up.  Hell they'll probably sound stunning on just my basic Sony studio monitors!

I digress..

213  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 20, 2015, 07:22:38 AM
Maybe I´m a damn fool but I believe Bill Pohlad about soundtrack coming out.. Can´t find a link right now but I know I read somewhere that it´s coming out!

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/06/interview-director-bill-pohlad/

COS: Your film handles Brian’s auditory hallucinations in a really incredible way. Was the idea to stitch together bits and pieces of Wilson’s music into a sort of haunting dissonance something you and [composer] Atticus Ross came up with together?

BP: Yes. That was one of the exciting things for me as a filmmaker. Brian suffers from hallucinations, but they’re not visual hallucinations, which would be the normal thing. When you’re making a film, you can go to all those tried-and-true visual references to try and express those hallucinations, but this is auditory. I would talk to Brian and read things about those types of hallucinations and what they’re like, and I was really intrigued by the notion of trying to represent those.

The overall understanding I got from Brian and Melinda is that Brian hears these really complex melodies and arrangements in his head, and it’s part of his genius, but he also can’t turn them off. They became part of his madness as well. In trying to express all that, one thing that popped into my mind was “Revolution #9” off the Beatles’ White Album. That was something I was focusing on. When I was meeting sound people, Atticus was one of the first guys I talked to about that notion, and he picked up on it immediately. His experience, the things he’s done in the past as a producer and a composer, really lent itself to that kind of thing. He definitely took it and ran with it. That was really exciting.

COS: Please tell me you’re going to release a soundtrack of that score.

BP: We are. We’re working on it now. Unfortunately, these things get complicated when you’ve got a lot of bits from different songs and different eras, but we’re working through it, and it should be out soon after the film.
214  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: I Am Brian Wilson: New Autobiography on: July 20, 2015, 06:32:11 AM
That's down to changing authors recently. Jason Fine's exact status on the project had been questionable for some time before Brian let the cat out of the bag in a recent interview. Exactly why depends on who you listen to.

Would love to hear your theory.
215  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 20, 2015, 06:31:06 AM
Teresa Cowles - best supporting bimbo

 LOL

soundtrack (please, release that as a download if nothing else)

I've been hoping against hope for the same thing since release day.  Starting to give up hope though, honestly.
216  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 20, 2015, 06:29:50 AM
Sorry about going off topic but I do love to talk movies.

I just saw Ikiru for the first time the other night and it's a beautiful, beautiful movie. It's instantly in my personal top 100 and I would also put it ahead of Ran, even though that's also breathtaking. My favourite Kurosawa's, though, remain Throne of Blood and Rashomon. I must say, I don't think I've seen Seven Samurai all the way through. I have a distinct memory of taking it out of the library about 15 years ago, but I don't recall much of it so not sure if I watched it entirely or not. Either way, I should definitely see it. Kurosawa is shaping up to be one of favourite filmmakers.

The Player is great but definitely see Nashville. It's not to everyone's tastes but I think it's one of the greatest movies ever made.

I don't get to indulge my love of movies nearly as much as I once did (kids).  But I share your same passion.  I'm still very pleased that L&M was made with a certain level of artistry and with an aim much higher than the standard biopic.
217  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 19, 2015, 02:29:17 PM
If you like ambitious, you should also consider Kurosawa's Ran and Robert Altman's Nashville. Talk about ambitious movies!

I appreciate Kurosawa's work, my favorite is probably IKIRU.  Out more grandiose films, I would have have to settle in with SEVEN SAMURAI.  I'm nearly 40 and still never seen NASHVILLE.  I do love Altman though, very much.  I have a personal love for THE PLAYER.

The first movie I ever saw when I was like 4 years old, my aunt took me to see POPEYE (the Altman movie).  I guess if you are going to be introduced to the cinema with a classic cartoon character, it might as well have Altman in the director's chair and Harry Nilsson & Van Dyke Parks doing the soundtrack.  It wasn't until many, many years later that I made the associations of course.  Still happy thought that I can say that was my first experience in a theater.
218  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: 14 Beach Boys albums coming to vinyl/SACD on: July 19, 2015, 01:19:23 PM
I wish I did.  I called Acoustic Sounds about a week ago to inquire about when the next batch would be released.  "Soon" was really all they said, sorry to say.
219  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 19, 2015, 01:16:28 PM
I don't have much time right now, but another instance is when the three brothers are on the deck, and Dennis is sitting on the railing overlooking what's below, including the water, and it looks like quite a drop-off, and is symbolic in how he is positioned, and what he says, and how he died... as in the montage following, he is gone from that shot, symbolizing his death.

There's a lot more though.... a great film that demands multiple viewings, and like only a few films, works like our favorite music (not just because our favorite music is in it), in that it doesn't grow old.

So much going on in this film.  Not just for BW devotees, for film lovers alike.  The scene you reference there, Dennis sitting on the railing — my thoughts exactly.  In the closing flashback montage late in the film, as you mention, the same shot is shown but Dennis is no longer sitting on the rail.  The very next frame shows shadows of water from the pool. 

Deep stuff.
220  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Brian will be a featured topic on CBS Sunday Morning News today on: July 19, 2015, 11:45:15 AM
YouTube links...

Full Broadcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svcgGFmRNFg

Just the Brian segment with no lead-in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ2hrYXPHxA
221  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 17, 2015, 02:56:57 PM
On a side note, I find it crazy that I've had David Bowman as my avatar on Smiley Smile pretty much ever since I signed up here, and he's being used as a nearly direct homage in this new film.

That is pretty sweet, I have to say.  This is off topic but I still remember the first time I saw 2001.  Early 1990s on American Movie Classics, before they branded themselves AMC I think.  It was I think like the first letterboxes presentation of the film on cable.  Wish I had been alive in and of age in the 1968 to have seen it in the theater.

I can't think of a more ambitious movie than 2001 ever maybe... except CITIZEN KANE.
222  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: The 1980s photo of Brian Wilson on Made in the USA on: July 17, 2015, 02:54:06 PM
Way off topic I know, but that CD is one of the best mastered CDs of Beach Boys hits there is, I think.  Sonically damn near perfect.
223  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 17, 2015, 12:00:02 PM
I've talked about this a bit in my various observations about L&M but I would like to get other peoples interpretations.

There are two shots of 'Brian Present' (1970s) in bed.  Both shots last no longer than 4-5 seconds each.   What is your take on those two momentary interludes?  What do they mean?  How do you interpret them?

Think Kubrick. Think Bowman.

Exactly.

What is the meaning? According to the book 2001 (spoiler alert), from what I remember, the aliens placed Bowman in that room where his brain is studied or something. The aliens then help him complete the next step of human evolution...Bowman becomes the Starchild.

I get what you are saying and indeed I've seen 2001 probably as many times as I've seen LOVE & MERCY, 10 and counting.  I think the two bed interludes I'm referring to are detached from the 2001 homage-montage that happens in the last 20 minutes of the film.

The original screenplay, as I understand, had three Brian's.  Brian 'Past' (1960s), Brian 'Present' (1970s) and Brian 'Future' (1980s).  Brian 'Present' was whittled down to two 4-5 second interludes at the beginning of the film, following the initial prologue of Brian at the piano -> and then the "Black Hole" ear sequence.  There we first see Brian 'Present'.  I think that part of the story (and this is just a theory) is Brian 'Present' remembering all the sounds and images of Brian 'Past'.  The second time we see Brian 'Present' is at roughly the 100 minute mark of the film after Marylin calls to Brian 'come see (Carnie), she's got your smile'.   Quickly after the 2nd appearance of Brian 'Present' we cut to 'the Last Will and Testament of Brian Douglas Wilson', Gloria giving Melinda what she found in the printer.

My take on this is that as the film opens Brian 'Present' is remembering Brian 'Past' and the music.  And the 2nd time is a visual reference of what Brian 'Past' becomes after several more years of psychosis.  Then we jump back to the 'Future' with the will and then Landy being served.

Regarding the 2001 homage-montage (I'm coining that phrase) definitely thing you are right on the money in your assessment.  Brian 'Future' laying in bed now unshackled from Dr. Landy, hearing voices in his head, again remember the past –  all the way back to childhood.  And then feeling himself first person in bed at various stages.  

Heavy stuff, all of it.  A lesser film wouldn't have even dared go anywhere near this.  
224  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out. on: July 17, 2015, 11:44:56 AM
I've talked about this a bit in my various observations about L&M but I would like to get other peoples interpretations.

There are two shots of 'Brian Present' (1970s) in bed.  Both shots last no longer than 4-5 seconds each.   What is your take on those two momentary interludes?  What do they mean?  How do you interpret them?

Think Kubrick. Think Bowman.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the 2001 montage-homage.  I'm talking specifically about the two independent interludes of Brian in bed in the 1970s.

BTW - have you seen the film yet?
225  Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Love & Mercy Blu-Ray/DVD Official thread on: July 16, 2015, 10:21:31 PM
Thing is, I think we can safely assume this was the Directors Cut of the film?  Why?  Because it was essentially self-financed by River Road and the version shown at TIFF supposedly doesn't differ in any perceptible  way from the one in theaters.

I think of a Directors Cut as a way to right a wrong.  A studio insists on changes or cuts to a film, for narrative reasons or maybe for running time.  Then it's interesting to see what the directors original vision was.

In the case of L&M, I sense that this is the finished film the filmmakers had in mind.  The deleted scenes will be nice to see, if for no other reason than to maybe 2nd guess their decision to excise them in the first place.  But also, because we're fans and we want every last kernel of it we can get.  I know I do!
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