ART - Robert Ashley - Perfect Lives - 7 - The Backyard (T'Be Continued)

A television opera “about” bank robbery, cocktail lounges, geriatric love, adolescent elopement, et al, in the American Midwest.

Total Runtime: 0:26:00

Robert Ashley: (born March 28, 1930), is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.

Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He studied at the University of Michigan with Ross Lee Finney, at the Manhattan School of Music, and was later a musician in the US Army. After moving back to Michigan, Ashley worked at the University of Michigan's Speech Research Laboratories. Although he was not officially a student in the acoustic research program there, he was offered the chance to obtain a doctorate, but turned it down to pursue his music. From 1961 to 1969, he organised the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor with Roger Reynolds, Gordon Mumma, and other local composers and artists. He was a co-founder of the ONCE Group, as well as a member of the Sonic Arts Union, which also included David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, and Gordon Mumma. In 1969 he became director of the San Francisco Tape Music Center. In the 1970s he directed the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. His notable students include Maggi Payne.

The majority of Ashley's recordings have been released by Lovely Music, which was founded by Performing Artservices, the not-for-profit management organization which represents Ashley and other artists. Ashley's opera Perfect Lives was featured in Peter Greenaway's documentary 4 American Composers.

PERFECT LIVES:

An opera for television by Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley’s television opera “about” bank robbery, cocktail lounges, geriatric love, adolescent elopement, et al, in the American Midwest. One of the definitive text-sound compositions of the late 20th century, it has been called a comic opera about reincarnation.

“Nothing less than the first American opera, written within an American language utilizing various American attention spans: snippets for the channel switchers, layers of meaning for the smart-alecks, something for everyone, and accessible. Works such as this put to rest any doubts if opera can or should survive, and how.”
— Fanfare (Allan Evans), March/April 1999

PERFECT LIVES was developed musically through live performances in Europe and America. “Blue” Gene Tyranny was Ashley’s first collaborator — his keyboard melodies and harmonies define the character of Buddy. Tyranny and Ashley performed a chamber version of the piece many times together (including at The Kitchen in early 1978). Shortly after, The Kitchen commissioned PERFECT LIVES as an opera for television, the live version expanded to include richly layered orchestral tapes produced by composer Peter Gordon, and the singing of Jill Kroesen and David Van Tieghem. In 1980, John Sanborn recorded the basic video tracks on location in Illinois according to the templates provided by Ashley’s score. From this material, The Lessons, a preview version of the opera (based on keyboard gestures by “Blue” Gene Tyranny) was produced through the TV Lab at WNET.

In the fall of 1982, a pre-sale was obtained from Channel Four Television in Great Britain, making possible the completion of Perfect Lives. John Sanborn, the television director, designed an elaborate shooting and editing plan for the visual elements of Ashley’s score. The post-production was completed this August (1983) at VCA Teletronics, under the supervision of Dean Winkler, who worked with Sanborn on image processing and was the videotape editor. Since its premiere on Great Britain’s Channel Four in 1984 PERFECT LIVES has been broadcast throughout Europe and in various cities in the United States.

PERFECT LIVES was produced with support from the National Endowment for the Arts (Media and Visual Arts Programs), the New York State Council on the Arts (Media Program), the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Beards Fund.

Over the years Lovely Music has made various formats of PERFECT LIVES available: on audio cassette in 1984; on CD in 1991, for which the audio track was re-mastered by Allan Tucker at Foothill Digital; on VHS in 1994; and in 2005, on DVD, completely re-mastered at Blink Digital under the supervision of Dean Winkler, available in both NTSC and PAL.

In 1991, Burning Books (Santa Fe) published a hard cover edition of PERFECT LIVES’ libretto, edited by Melody Sumner Carnahan, with Robert Ashley’s commentary, also available through Lovely Music.

Thor and The Avengers: Molto and the Lava Men (1966)

Lava men are inhuman monsters that threaten all of humanity! Perhaps the Hulk can be persuaded to help the Avengers by a... friend? Great style!

Total Runtime: 0:17:03

The Marvel Super Heroes^[1] is an American and Canadian-made animated television series starring five comic-book superheroes from Marvel Comics. It was first syndicated, on U.S. television, in 1966.

Produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, headed by Grant Simmons, Ray Patterson and Robert Lawrence,^[2] it was an umbrella series of five segments, each approximately seven minutes long, broadcast on local television stations that aired the show at different times. The series ran initially as a half-hour program made up of three seven-minute segments of a single superhero, separated by a short description of one of the other four heroes. It has also been broadcast as a mixture of various heroes in a half-hour timeslot, and as individual segments as filler or within a children's TV program.

The segments, and their original rotations, were:

Sixty-five episodes of three seven-minute segments were produced, for a total of 195 segments that ran initially in broadcast syndication from September 1, 1966 to December 1, 1966.^[3] The series, produced in color, had extremely limited animation produced by xerography, consisting of photocopied images taken directly from the comics and manipulated to minimize the need for animation production. The cartoons were presented as a series of static comic-strip panel images; generally the only movement involved the lips, when a character spoke, the occasional arm or leg, or a fully animated black silhouette. The series used the original stories largely in their entirety, showcasing Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck art, among others, from the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books.

Stan Lee, Marvel's editor and art director at the time, said in 2004 that he believed publisher Martin Goodman negotiated the deal with Grantray-Lawrence and that Lawrence chose the characters to be used. Lawrence rented Lee and his wife apenthouse apartment at 30 East 60th Street, near Madison Avenue, for Lee's use while he worked on the series. (Lee lived in Hewlett Harbor, New York, on Long Island, at the time.) Lee recalled, "I really don't remember any reaction from the Marvel artists involved. I wish I could claim to have written the [theme song] lyrics, because I think they're brilliant, but alas, I didn't".^[4] In the meantime, Grantray-Lawrence subcontracted production of The Mighty Thor segments to Paramount Cartoon Studios^{[citation needed]} (the animation division of Paramount Pictures, formerly known as Famous Studios), headed at that time by Fleischer Studios veteran Shamus Culhane.

Marvel announced the series in the "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" of the November 1966 issues, stating in that monthly fan page's hyperbolic style that, "It won't be long before our swingin' super-heroes [sic] make their star-studded debut on TV, appearing five nights a week — that's right, five — count 'em — five nights a week, for a half-hour each night. So you've just got time to make sure your set's in good working order — check your local paper for time and station — and prepare to have a ball!"^[5]

Lava Men

The Lava Men are a race of Subterraneans who were mutated by the demon Cha'sa'dra, a native of Limbo, into a lava-skinned form. The first Lava Man to visit the surface world was Jinku, who was propelled to the surface by a volcanic reaction triggered by the trickster god Loki. This Lava Man fought Thor before he was returned underground. Later he and other Lava Men later fought Thor's teammates, the Avengers. Cha'sa'dra was among the demons of Limbo who appeared on Earth during the "Inferno" storyline, and when he was destroyed in combat with the Avengers, the Lava Men were apparently transformed into solid, non-living matter.

Lava Men had red skin of rock-hard consistency. A Lava Man's body has twice the density of a normal human being's. Upon death a normal Lava Man immediately decomposes into dust. A small number of Lava Men have undergone a metamorphosis giving them golden skins. Grotesk has rendered all Lava Men mute under his rule. No clearly female Lava Men have been depicted to date.

Less than one thousand Lava Men are known to exist. The Lava Men formerly had a tribal government, but became a monarchy ruled by Grotesk, although the golden Lava Men remained under tribal rule. Their technology level is primitive and the Lava Men are deeply religious, and peaceful except when stirred to war by religious fervor. Lava Men were formerly nomadic. Though not a Lava Man himself, Grotesk ruled the red Lava Men. Jinku was a shaman of the gold Lava Men. Other known Lava Men have included the golden Lava Men Akor, Danka, and Kelak, as well as the deceased Molto. Enemies of the Lava Men have included the Avengers, Thor, the Molian and Tyrannoid Subterraneans, Brutus, and theDeviants. Major allies of the Lava Men have included Grotesk, Captain Marvel II, and formerly Cha'Sa'Dra.

The first reported appearance of a Lava Man on Earth's surface was Molto, in Journey into Mystery #97 (October 1963) byJack Kirby.

[] Fictional history

Molto appeared on Earth's surface, and battled Thor in New York City. Molto became Thor's friend afterwards, however.^[4]The Avengers later fought the Lava Men in Subterranea when they tried to force a 'living rock' that was emitting deadly sound waves to the surface, hoping that when it eventually exploded it would wreck Earth and not their realm. However the Hulk was tricked into striking the spot that destroyed it. Thor allowed the rest of the Lava Men to return home.^[5]

Jinku plotted to use the Mole Man's machine to activate all volcanoes on the Earth. Molto was mortally wounded by Jinku, but warned Thor and the Human Torch about Jinku before dying. Thor wrecked the machine, and the Torch led the Molion Subterraneans in defeating the Lava Men.^[6]

A Project: Pegasus borer probe wreaked havoc in a Lava Men settlement, and they retaliated by invading Project: Pegasus. The Lava Men clashed with the Avengers again before returning to Subterranea.^[7] The Lava Men became involved in a war against the other Subterranean races, and managed to capture the Mole Man.^[8]

Jinku magically created a group of non-sentient Lava Men that attacked the Avengers and Hydro-Base. It was revealed how the demon Cha' Sa' Dra transformed a group of Gortokian subterraneans into the first Lava Men, and how Cha' Sa' Dra's death killed hundreds of Lava Men, and placed others in an immobile "chrysalis" state. The vengeful Jinku unleashed a monster against the Avengers in Subterranea. The immobile Lava Men attained new golden forms, and Jinku was similarly transformed. However, they all made peace with the Avengers.^[9]

Later, the remaining untransformed red Lava Men came under the rule of Grotesk. Some of the Lava Men fled to the surface to escape the war in Subterranea, but were forced to return.^[10]

[] Powers and abilities

Lava Men have a high resistance to extreme heat and flame. They continually generate intense heat from their bodies and can increase the amount of heat at will, enough to be able to melt a weapon in its vicinity. They have a mystical ability to cause large amounts of volcanic ash to appear, seemingly from nowhere, and to transform metal into ash. They also have an immunity to aging. Some Lava Men can mystically transform themselves into 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) giants composed of hardened lava. Some Lava Men can mystically command molten lava to do their bidding by performing a ritual prayer to thedemons they worship. The golden Lava Men can transform their shapes, and in doing so, even merge their bodies with one another. They once formed themselves into a large sphere that could defy gravity. Jinku has mystically created non-sentient Lava Men which possess the superhuman powers of the real Lava Men.

Lava Men had unusually acute hearing and night vision to enable them to function more easily in the darkness of Subterranea.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Tokyo Melody (Elizabeth Lennard, 1985)

ridiculously good portrait of mr sakamoto, a stand-out figure of experimental & pop to this day

Total Runtime: 1:02:44

Documentary directed by French photographer Elizabeth Lennard featuring the eclectic Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto during the recording sessions of his 1984 album "Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia".

Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一 Sakamoto Ryūichi?, born January 17, 1952) (Japanese pronunciation: [ɽju͍ːꜜitɕi sakamoto]) is a Japanese musician, composer, record producer, writer, singer, pianist, and actor, based in Tokyo and New York. He began his career in 1978 as a member of the pioneering electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO),[1][2] where he played keyboards and was an occasional vocalist. The band was an international success, with worldwide hits such as "Computer Game / Firecracker" (1978) and "Behind the Mask" (1978),[3] the latter written and sung by Sakamoto. He concurrently began pursuing a solo career, debuting with the experimental electronic fusion album The Thousand Knives of Ryūichi Sakamoto (1978), and later released the pioneering album B-2 Unit (1980), which included the electro classic "Riot in Lagos".[4][5][6] After YMO disbanded in 1983, he produced more solo records, including collaborations with various international artists, through to the 1990s.

He began acting and composing for film with Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), which he starred in and composed the score for; the song "Forbidden Colours" which he composed for it became a worldwide hit and he won a BAFTA Award for the film's score.[7] He later won an Academy Award and Grammy Award for scoring The Last Emperor (1987),[8] and has also won two Golden Globe Awards for his work as a film composer.[7] In addition, he also composed music for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics opening ceremony. In the early 1990s, he briefly reunited with YMO, playing an instrumental role in the techno and acid house movements of the era, before parting ways again shortly afterwards.[9] His 1999 musical composition "Energy Flow", also known as the alternative title of the single disc Ura BTTB, was the first number-one instrumental single in Japan's Oricon charts history.[10] He has also occasionally worked on anime and video games, as a composer as well as a scenario writer. In the late 2000s, he reunited once again with YMO, while continuing to compose film music. In 2009, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France's Ministry of Culture for his musical contributions.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryuichi_Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Tokyo Melody (Elizabeth Lennard, 1985)

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