As I said when I reviewed my first Run-D.M.C. record, I know nothing about the history of hip hop. Given that, it’s pretty easy to just think “well I’m ignorant and sop I’ll just go with the consensus.”
Category: 1985
A Chorus Line (1985, directed by Richard Attenborough)
I don’t really know what to do here: I’ve never seen the stage show, as musicals aren’t really my thing, and there are lots of people who will tell you the movie is inferior to the show. On the other hand, I understand why the show was a big deal, because I watched this movie.
The Jewel of the Nile (1985, Lewis Teague)
Whatever charms Romancing the Stone possessed, are generally lacking in this bizarre, dated and probably offensive sequel.
Higglety Pigglety Pop!; Where the Wild Things Are (2001) by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Oliver Knussen, starring Cynthia Buchan, Lisa Saffer et al
This disc features both of Oliver Knussen’s “children’s operas,” based on books by Maurice Sendak.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a frustrating and maddening book that might be better called Old Man Yells at New Technology and About How Things Were Better Before He Was Born. It’s considered a classic examination of the problems of new technology, which I find odd given how shoddily the argument is made. If this …
Kagel: Pan; String Quartets I-III (2004) by Arditti String Quartet
This disc collects the first three of Kagel’s quartets and pairs them with a piece he wrote for string quartet and piccolo. (Dietmar Wiesner guests on that piece.)
Less than Zero (1985) by Bret Easton Ellis
On some level, this feels like an ’80s LA Catcher in the Rye, albeit with richer and older kids, and drugs and prostitution. I feel like this may have been Ellis’ intent, I also think that the acclaim that greeted it upon its release likely was due, in part to that comparison, however misguided.
Brothers in Arms (1985) by Dire Straits
Ten years ago I wrote the following: This might not be so bad if they had actually hired a producer. It’s like Knopfler put a big stamp on this record saying “This album was recorded in the ’80s!” Knopfler’s production is the aural equivalent of those ’50s sci-fi films that imagined the “futuristic” ’70s and …
Kleines Requiem fur eine Polka; Concerto for Harpsichord; Good Night (1995) by Henryk Gorecki, performed by the London Sinfonietta et. al
This is a rather arbitrary collection of Gorecki’s later “avant garde” works, featuring a concerto from 1980 and two chamber pieces from the 1990s. But putting the arbitrariness to the side, what we are left with is some very stirring music.
Complete String Quartets (2008) by Philip Glass, performed by the Smith Quartet
First off, this is no longer ‘complete’ if it ever really was – Glass has apparently written a 6th quartet. (Also, there are other pieces he has written for string quartet that do not appear here, but they are not numbered among his string quartets, apparently.)