The things you learn from threads never cease to amaze. Last week, Stephen Thrower wrote about horror movie soundtracks, to general approval. Among the approvers was Chosty, who noted "something I've come across fairly recently: a selection of tracks by Coil that were composed – but ultimately unused – for the original Hellraiser film. Definitely a giallo vibe to them." Up popped PhelimONeill with a nice piece of additional information: "You may not be surprised to hear that group's ranks included, for a spell, one Stephen Thrower."
"I've always loved horror soundtracks for being able to bring evocative and experimental music to a much wider audience than usual," said Chewtoy. "Not everyone who saw a horror film from the 1970s will have heard of the name Krzysztof Penderecki, but they will definitely have heard his music, if not countless soundtrack composers emulating his string glissandi." PhilipD agreed: "One of the interesting things about horror music soundtracks is, I think, that it is the only forum where avant garde music has genuinely connected with the general public." If you want to dip in to horror soundtracks, don't just read the original article: check out the recommendations in the thread.
If the fans were out for horror soundtracks, the naysayers emerged to have their say about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Like DigitalWasp, who described them as a "classic example of a sell-out. Just look how they only play festivals and arenas now. There's just not enough money in playing the Brixton Academies anymore, maan. They're bunch of tattooed millionaires who don't fool me for a second." That prompted fushundchups's response: "Good band gets popular, more people want to go to their concerts, increase venue size to accommodate fans = complain about them selling out." Or, as pikala put it: "I've found there's a sort of irrational snobbery amongst many Brits when it comes to the Chili Peppers. Since Blood Sugar Sex Magick they've made a couple of very good albums and a couple of average ones, but, because they haven't topped one of the greatest rock albums ever, they're now 'shit' for some reason. If they'd released another album in the same style as BSSM they would've been shit for repeating themselves. Go figure."
"I'd rather have a shelf of first editions of novels I love than a jewelry box full of gold and precious gems," redconky told us. Her reason for confessing to being a geeky girl? Anne Billson's column about Hollywood's difficulty with portraying that kind of person, as shown in One Day. Redconky went on: "My idea of a good time consists of sitting on a milk crate in the corner of a musty used bookshop leafing through a pile of novels and nonfiction works with news radio or classical music pumping through the speakers on a rainy afternoon … Movies aren't made about people like us because our stories unfold at a glacially slow pace in ways that aren't the same as the crazy people featured on so-called reality television."
Women themselves are to blame for the lack of screen geeks, reckoned MrBubbles: "Why aren't there more geeky girls in films? Because most women would rather watch a film starring Jennifer Aniston than Greta Gerwig. Remember when Gillian Anderson (short, normal-shaped, TV actress) was voted sexiest woman in FHM? The bile this provoked from women everywhere was unbelievable. Sorry ladies, but you've only yourselves to blame on this one."
On the other hand, asked jeromeknewton, is it not possible to combine physical and mental perfection? "I think you've accidentally slightly undersold intelligent women with this article though; the implication is that you cannot be both stunningly beautiful and literate/alternate/interesting." I'm proof he's right. Though I'm not a woman.
