Wagner - Tony Palmer (1983)

As punishment for not liking the Saxophone, Gav banishes Tom to a seven hour Television Marathon from the mid-eighties starring Richard Burton.

Sep 17, 2021

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Tony Palmer

In the News again! Arts figures leap to BBC’s defence over classical music TV output.
Not a great print, but if you needed any encouragement to buy this film, here it is.
…and here’s Gav’s Mum…

John Cage?

Tom thinks that Cage was onto something important here:

Recounting a conversation regarding Cage’s reaction to Handel’s Messiah.“I had just heard The Messiah (sic] with Mrs. Henry Allen Moe, and she said, “Don’t you love the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’” and I said, “No, I can’t stand it.” So she said, “Don’t you like to be moved?” and I said, “I don’t mind being moved but I don’t like to be pushed.” When asked, “Is it possible to listen to The Messiah [sic] in such a way that the sounds can be taken simply as themselves?” Cage answered, “I think so. But you’d have to listen to a lot of other music at the same time, in some kind of Apartment House situation. Then it might be very entertaining. You can get rid of intention by multiplying intention. That’s what’s at the basis of my work with Musicircus.” Recounted in Conversing with Cage, 234.

John Cage Empty Words Milan 2 Dec 1977

And finally…

Your and our palate cleanser after 7 and a half hours of high-art film documenting the most ambitious high-art music theater, and after this endless podcast is this short but marvelous excerpt of low culture contained in another work of over-baked high-art, Heaven’s Gate.

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Gas Giants

All of culture explained by two fat old men, one artifact at a time. Gav and Tom gas about music, movies, TV, books and their creators attempting to understand what they mean about everything else in the world. New episodes every other week Fridays.

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