Hello!

Are you a fan of John Parker’s 1953 avant-garde horror pic Dementia? A singer-songwriter by the name of K. Edward Smith has put together a new score for the show, and is offering it online with the movie or as a separate soundtrack recording.

We’ve only heard a few sample cues from the new music tracks. The info on Smith and his re-scoring of the classic movie is at this Right Brain link; I’ve also been given a link to a page for the score sans video: Dementia: The Complete Film Score.

Interesting ambition, that. I’d say that the original George Antheil score isn’t begging for replacement, but an experiment is an experiment. You know, like Philip Glass and his buzz-hum music score revision for the original Dracula.

The ever-observant Joe Dante has been circulating this YouTube link, a curious bit of cultural appropriation entitled The Exquisite Gucci Campaign. The budget for this must have been astronomical, the imagination required not quite as impressive.

Yes, this was no ordinary fashion video shoot. The underlying message seems to be ‘we’re Gucci trendsetters and you’re not; we can do any frivolous thing our hearts desire and call it culturally significant.”  That negative evaluation is probably uncalled for. The images are indeed arresting.

Ever had the thought of recreating an environment from a movie?  There was a marvelous effects man by the name Tom Scherman, who with his brother completely transformed his apartment so that it evoked the iron + rivets interior of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus from the Disney film. On a less extreme level, my son recently told me about a friend who decorated his basement rec room to resemble the David Lynch Doom Room in ‘The Lodge,’ complete with scarlet drapes, zigzag carpeting and an odd statue or two. More power to the guy.

Is the detailed recreation of movie memories going to be a ‘thing’ as the movies themselves fade into some passé netherworld?  I confess to having similar daydreams — were I a Sultan with unlimited discretionary fun money, I’d eagerly commission a landscaped property where the backyard view would be a full-scale recreation of The Sand Pit Hill from Invaders from Mars. It would face the rising sun, of course, with trees painted black and grass painted yellow. You know, just to unnerve houseguests.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson