Mochi ice cream is a Japanese desert wrapped in a glutinous rice cake. I've seen it on the menu at several Japanese restaurants and the treat often pops up in anime, but I've never taken the dive and tried it.
Well that changed today! Thanks to a catchy little song, I recently learned that Trader Joe's sells 3 flavors of mochi. I picked up the strawberry flavor and...
...it's pretty good. Actually, the ice cream is delicious, but the rice cake shell is bland and unappetizing. Now, the box of 6 mochi only costs about $3.50, so maybe expectations about the quality of the pastry should be lowered. Regardless, I found myself wishing I could just remove the ice cream and eat it by itself.
This is the first in a series of blog posts that will highlight my favorite works from some of my favorite composers. --- We start with the big man himself, Mr. John Williams. Now, Williams's early work is so iconic and so familiar that I won't bother providing samples of the more well-known themes from films like Star Wars, Superman, E.T., Jaws and Indiana Jones. Instead, I'll focus on his more recent work, as well as some older tracks that I believe are under appreciated.
On that note, here is "The Asteroid Field" from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
This is probably my favorite track from the original trilogy. John really hit his creative stride with Empire Strikes Back, which introduces Vader's infamous Imperial March, the battle of Hoth, Yoda's playful theme, and a frenetic ride through an asteroid field. There is an extended version of "The Asteroid Field" featured on this album, of which I recommend grabbing a copy. I think it just may be the quintessential space motif.
"Adventures on Earth" is my favorite arrangement of music from E.T. (and also featured on the above album) It is varied, infused with urgency and grandeur, and simply moving. One of my most favorite moments is from the 2 minute mark until 2:50.
Ever hear of a little Spielberg film called "Empire of the Sun"? No!? Well, it seems a lot of people have missed out on one of young Christian Bale's greatest movie roles. But more tragically, they've missed out on one of William's most uplifting and magical movie themes, "Cadillac of the Skies"
Now for the new stuff. Everyone is probably familiar with "Duel of Fates" from Star Wars Episode I, but I want to include it because I believe it is just as impressive as Orf's "O Fortuna" or Goldsmith's "Ave Satani." Even George Lucas seems to have noticed the brilliance of the piece because he uses it in all three films as well as during Yoda's battle with the Emperor in Episode III, which interrupts Williams's newer but less impressive track, "Battle of the Heroes." Here's the original: (which actually made it on VH1)
Although this next track from Minority Report entitled, "Anderton's Great Escape" trails off into uninteresting territory, the first 3/4's are pure powerhouse and some of Williams's best action writing to date. I love going to my brother's soccer games and listening to this track. The action tends to line up in uncanny ways.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite film in the series, and probably for one reason alone: John Williams's score. The leap he makes between this film and the first is akin to the leap between A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back in terms of variation and inventiveness. Narrowing down my favorite track from the album is difficult, but I think "Buckbeak's Flight" takes the cake.
Runners up include "Double Trouble" and "The Whomping Willow," but of course you could just listen to one of my favorite musical arrangements, the medley "Mischief Managed!"
I don't have this next track on my ipod, but it's a crying shame because when it came out, it was the one piece from AI: Artificial Intelligence that gave me hope that John Williams still had an impressive career ahead of him. It's the most poignant moment in the film, filled with dread and mystery. Here is "Abandoned in the Woods":
That wraps up this edition of "Best of" with John Williams. If there's a track you think I should include or would recommend, please add it in the comments!
It's fairly obvious that this audio clip, which sounds kind of like, "Islam is the light," is actually baby babbling from a cheap, one-time royalty fee sound collection. I worked with these kind of sound effects libraries in college. Why else would a baby toy and a shovelware Nintendo DS game have the exact same sound clip? The mother's Islamophobia has skewed her interpretation of an otherwise random audio recording in much the same way ghost hunters hear voices in static EVPs. This sort of auditory pareidolia is common.
But the idiocy of this utter lack of investigative reporting is not the worst of it. Implicit in this entire news segment is the notion that, somehow, a phrase like "Islam is the light" in a children's toy is inherently indecent and dangerous. Now, I'm not sure I entirely disagree, but any Muslim would be rightfully insulted.
Why am I not surprised that this newscast is from Indiana?
"Zuckerman proposes what he calls a "socio-religious irony." The world's great religions speak of caring for the sick, the poor, and the orphaned, and of practicing mercy and goodwill toward fellow humans, yet these traits are often more evident in the world's least religious nations."
From Christianity Today Magazine, review of Phil Zuckerman's Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment
Sociologist Phil Zuckerman chronicles 14 months spent in highly secular Scandinavian countries and discovers surprisingly compassionate and contented peoples largely free of the troubling ills of society --failing schools, child abuse, systemic poverty and inequitable healthcare-- that plague more religious nations like the United States. I'd recommend reading the whole review. The bias is fairly heavy handed, but the criticisms are mostly fair and reasonable.
The final paragraph of the review, however, is almost comic and underscores the moral dilemma of believing in an afterlife.
Zuckerman sells humanity short. If people are content but no longer care about transcendent meaning and purpose or life beyond death, that's not a sign of greatness but tragic forgetfulness. Their horizon of concern is too narrow. They were made for more. What does it profit a society if, as this book's jacket notes, it gains "excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer," but loses its soul? Can a country build strong social systems and keep its soul?
Oh no! We can make progress on the eradication of suffering, but we'll have to stop pretending we're made of magic soul-stuff! It's not worth it!
By the way, I think more than a few Scandinavians would probably take issue with the implication that they no longer care about "transcendent meaning and purpose" just because they don't believe in an invisible man in the clouds.
