Twitter Thoughts—July 2016 Final Week

Featuring:

Downton Abbey, season 6 (2016) ****

Ghostbusters (2016) **½

The Shadow (1994) **

Star Trek Beyond (2016) ***½

Modern Family, season 7 (2015-2016) ***½

Jason Bourne (2016) ***

Androcles and the Lion (1952) ***

To call this the final week of July is a bit of a stretch. It’s more like the final half of the month. And this was all I watched in that time period. It was a busy time for both work and family that did not allow for much in terms of watching a screen for long periods of time.

My wife and I finally finished the BBC series “Downton Abbey” and couldn’t have been happier with it. It was consistently good and, like most British shows, did not outstay its welcome. I was happy with how the lives at the Abbey turned out, and while it might be nice to see how progress continued to change the class structure of British Royalty and their servants, it more than likely would’ve seemed more sad than what the results of progress really are. Like the elder generation, we all like our entertainment to stay the way it was.

In other television opinion, ABC’s “Modern Family” continues to quietly provide some of the most hilarious commentary on its titular subject matter. After seven seasons, you might expect some of the characters to become tired or irrelevant. You might think the barb would be dulled, but such is not the case with this series. It continues to pull out quality comedy from familial life without much change in style, structure or even cast. It’s quite remarkable.

Twitter Thoughts—July week 1

Featuring the films:

All the Right Moves (1983) ***

Andrei Rublev (1966) ****

Ghostbusters (1984) ****

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) ***½

The Shallows (2016) **½

Heaven’s Gate (1980) ***½

Ricki and the Flash (2015) **½

The Bourne Identity (2002) ***

The Bourne Supremacy (2004) ***½

Mannequin: On the Move (1991) ½*

I had a pretty good ten-day run of movies to start off July. I needed a football fix when I realized the Giants would face the Cowboys in a mere ten weeks, so I threw in a Tom Cruise high school classic, “All theRight Moves”. It’s actually pretty amazing that they gave Craig T. Nelson a sitcom where he plays a football coach after the ass he plays in this movie. I mean, yeah, he makes a pretty good football coach, but this ain’t the coach of his television show.

“Andrei Rublev” is one of the more unique biopics I’ve ever seen. At times it veers of into seemingly surreal settings and fantasy, yet it never loses track of its subject. It’s filled with those unique images that Werner Herzog says are lacking in modern cinema. Although it isn’t modern, it isn’t as old as it looks and feels in its execution. It’s a strange but wonderful treatment for an important Russian historical figure.

Twitter Thoughts—June 2016

Featuring the films and shows:

The Flash, season 2 (2015-2016) ***½

Independence Day (1996) *½

All These Women (1964) ***

Party Over Here, season 1 (2016) *½

The Alphabet (1968) ***½

Always For Pleasure (1978) ****

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) ***

Arrow, season 4 (2015-2016) ***½

Grimm, season 5 (2015-2016) ***

The Do Over (2016) **

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) ***

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) **½

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, season 1 (2015-2016) **½

Angie Tribeca, season 1 (2016) ****

New Girl, season 5 (2015-2016) ***

Piper (2016) ****

Finding Dory (2016) ***

Central Intelligence (2016) **½

The Boy Next Door (2015) *

Sleepy Hollow, season 3 (2015-2016) ***

Amarcord (1973) ****

The American Soldier (1970) ***

The Amputee, version 1 (1974) ***

Simply Irresistible (1999) ½*

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) **

The Amputee, version 2 (1974) ***

Downton Abbey, season 5 (2015) ****

… And God Created Woman (1956) ***

Hopefully this will be my final full month summary of the year and for all time. Again, a great many movies and television finales to cover, so let’s get to it.

On the television front. I was running behind a bit on several series, so I finished up several series during the month of June. Most of them were comic book shows. “The Flash” continues to be the most fun comic book show on television, although “Supergirl” gave it a run this year. It was fitting that the second half of the season featured a crossover episode on Supergirl. Plus, it was like a bonus “Flash” episode. Didn’t the producers of “Arrow” say that this season wouldn’t be as dark as last seaon? I guess what they meant is that it would be darker. Heck, the team narrowly avoided nuclear Armageddon for its finale. That was after the crippling of Felicity, the failure of the Olicity relationship and the death of a main character. While Arrow teammates do have a tendency to come back from the dead, I think this one’s for real this time. I also finished the surpernatural fantasy shows “Grimm” and “Sleepy Hollow” this month. Both sustained their MOs, although “Sleepy Hollow” felt a little rockier, probably due to its new show runners. It’s renewal was a surprise, but I’ll stay on for another season. FOX’s stalwart sitcom New Girl also held steady for its 5^th season.

Twitter Thoughts—May 2016

Featuring the films and shows:

Special Correspondents (2016) **

Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping (2016) ***

A Trip To the Moon (1902) ****

Alice in the Cities (1974) ***½

Captain America: Civil War (2016) ***

Hell Comes To Frogtown (1988) no stars

Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016) ***

Mommie Dearest (1981) **

The 33 (2016) ***

Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956) ****

The Apartment (1960) ****

Mr. Turner (2014) ***½

The Keeping Room (2015) ***

Jurassic World (2015) ***

On the Town (1949) ***

Main Street Today (1944) ***

Elementary, season 4 (24 43-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***

The Last Man On Earth, season 2 (18 23-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****

Castle (8 seasons, 173 eps. 2009-2016) ***

A Room With a View (1985) ****

Saturday Night Live, season 41 (21 105-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***

Supergirl, season 1 (20 43-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) ****

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 4 (22 45-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****

Blindspot, season 1 (23 42-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***

Gotham, season 2 (22 42-min. eps. 2015-2016) ***½

The Avengers (1998) ½*

The Asphalt Jungle (1940) ***½

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) ***

All My Good Contrymen (1969) ****

All the Boys Are Named Patrick (1959) ***½

The Muppets (1 season, 17 eps. 2015-2016) **    

I’m so far behind that I’m forced to include the entire month of May in one post. I’ll have to do the same for June. With the end of the television season occurring in May, there are a great many individual shows and films I would like comment on in addition to my tweets, so let’s get to it.

OK. I checked out Ricky Gervais’s Netflix movie “Special Correspondents” and I have to say for all the freedom Netflix gives to their filmmakers, they seem to have a problem with their original film division. While that approach seems to work very well for their longer format series, it seems to result in feature films with a lack of energy. They need to be tightened up. Gervais is quite funny and he has a good premise here, but its approached with no urgency and suffers from it. We’ll return to this next month with Adam Sandler’s latest, “The Do Over”.

Twitter Thoughts—April 2016 Week 4

Featuring the films:

Purple Rain (1984) **½

Alambrista! (1977) ****

Keanu (2016) ***

Dead Poet’s Society (1989) ***

Ant-Man (2015) ***

Solarbabies (1986) *

We’re just going to have to whip through most of this stuff so I can catch up to where I’m at today with movies and TV. This was the week after Prince died, so I kicked it off with “Purple Rain”, which I had never seen. Probably because I doubted it was very good. Despite the fact that we lost a great artist, I’m pretty sure I’m right in thinking that cinema wasn’t his best medium. This screening confirmed that belief. I then watched the wonderful 70’s film about Mexican illegals, “Alambastra!”, which should probably be seen by everyone who believes that immigrants are just living off of our sweat. I also saw Key & Peele’s first feature film “Keanu”, about their search for their lost gangsta cat. The movie capitalizes off their ability to convolute black stereotypes, but could use a little deeper foundation work. It was enjoyable enough though. I revisited “Dead Poet’s Society” and “Ant-Man” for the first time since my initial viewings. That was a much longer period of time for Poet’s. I still found the same problems I had 25 years ago with that one, but I liked “Ant-Man” even more the second time. Finally, the mind-boggling “Solarbabies” was my HDTGM movie for the week, truly begging the question, “How Did This Get Made?”

Twitter Thoughts—April 2016 Week 3

Featuring the films and show:

The Jungle Book (2016) ***½

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season 3 (23 23-min. eps. 2015-2016) ****

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) ***½

Can’t Stop the Music (1980) no stars

Ah man! I have fallen behind again. This site has gone into the crapper, but I’m doing it, man.  I’m blaming the two year old. If I have any readers left, you’re just going to have to hang with me until he’s… I don’t know… 12? Anyway, These were the non-Ebertfest movies I watched and a TV season I finished during the two weeks I was watching the Ebertfest films.

I thought the latest live action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” was quite impressive. I really wasn’t sure what to think going into it. I didn’t think it looked good from the trailers, but the early buzz was that it was great. I loved the Disney animated version and just didn’t know what to think about seemingly live action animals talking. It’s the lowest form of family filmmaking.

I was struck while watching these animals talk to each other as if it’s actually something that happens in nature that CGI has come so far that it’s wrong to look at a movie like this as a live action movie. This is an animated movie, almost entirely. It uses actual live action elements with the frequency and artistry of the cartoon elements of the original “Pete’s Dragon”, another live action animated update coming from Disney this fall. But it’s the live element that is really foreign here and needs to be assimilated to the CGI we’re seeing, which has become just as dramatically artistic as hand drawn animated movies once were. The CGI here is remarkable.

Twitter Thoughts—Ebertfest 2016

Featuring the films:

The Third Man (1949) ****

Crimson Peak (2015) ***

Grandma (2015) ****

Eve’s Bayou (1997) ***½

L’inhumaine  (1924) ***½

Northfork (2003) ***½

Body and Soul (1925) ***½

Love & Mercy (2015) ****

Blow Up (1980) ***½

I watched as many of the movies featured during the Roger Ebert Film Festival, as I do every year. One day I’ll make it back, but until then I’ll have to make do with streaming and rental services. I was not able to see the movies presented at this year’s festival that are still scheduled to be released this year. Those include the unofficial festival opener, “Everybody Wants Some!!”, but I have no doubt I will catch up with that one and the others I missed as soon as they become available to me.

I opened my Ebertfest with Carol Reed’s post-WWII thriller “The Third Man”. Part of my own collection of films, I’m surprised it took Ebertfest 18 years to get to this one. It’s a film that has been analyzed ad nauseam, so I won’t attempt one here. Instead I’d like to discuss its unusual score comprised entirely of zither music composed and performed by Anton Karas. It’s an unusual sound for a thriller. At first it seems almost out of place, like it belongs in a much more lighthearted plot. As the movie goes along, however, the music informs its unique feel. “The Third Man” is no ordinary thriller as it depends more on the absence of its threat than the presence of one. The zither music eventually becomes an identifying factor of the film’s unique feel and impact. While it seems alien and strange at first, by the final fade out, it’s hard to imagine any other type of music accompanying this story and these images.

Twitter Thoughts—April 2016 Week 1

Featuring the films:

The Look of Silence (2015) ****

Pride (2014) **½

Foxcatcher (2014) ****

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931) ****

Shake! Otis at Monterey (1986) ****

Wow! This was a very interesting week of movies for me. Only five this time as I continue to fall further behind on the DLM Challenge, but what a great collection of films they were.

First was this year’s Oscar nominated documentary “The Look of Silence”, a companion piece to Joshua Oppenheimer’s other Oscar nominated doc “The Act of Killing”, about the men behind the Indonesian death squads responsible for the genocide of their own people. The new doc looks at a family of one of their victims. A man who lost a brother is given the opportunity to confront his brother’s killers. There is no Hollywood revenge plot here, but what does unfold is a fascinating look at human nature and the way people react to genuine evil.

Twitter Thoughts—March 2016 Final Week

Featuring the films and show:

Before Midnight (2013) ***½

The Quest (1996) *

Monterey Pop (1968) ****

You, Me and the Apocalypse, season 1 (10 45-min. eps. 2016) ****

Cradle Will Rock (1999) ***½

David Gilmour: Wider Horizons (2015) ***  

OK. I really am trying to catch up. I was also at a loss at how to label this week since most of the week took place during March, but most of film watching during it took place over the first weekend of April. You’ll just have to make do.

It was a mostly good week, if it weren’t for the second JCVD movie in a row watched for the podcast How Did This Get Made?. A couple weeks ago I discussed “Bloodsport” and for his directorial debut, “The Quest”, you can pretty much just transfer those thoughts over because the two movies are exactly the same. I mean there are some minor difference, like the fact that “The Quest” takes place in the 1920s and that it’s rated PG-13, but other than those insignificant details, pretty much the same movie.

Twitter Thoughts—March 2016 Week 4

Featured films:

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) ***½

The Adventures of Tintin (2011) ***½

Batkid Begins (2015) ***

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) ***½

Superstore, season 1 (11 24-min. eps., 2016) ***

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum (1966) **½

For my thoughts on “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, please refer to my full-length review. Before it was released, I joked that when I watched “Batkid Begins”, I had seen the only good Batman movie I would that week. This assessment was based on the negative buzz surrounding BvS. Despite critical derision, I actually enjoyed that movie. It didn’t have the heart of “Batkid Begins”, the documentary following a Make-a-Wish kid’s day as his favorite superhero.

That fourth week of March was also the week that started out with the tragedy in Brussels. I had a difficult time finding a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie that I felt was actually honoring Belgium, so I went for Steven Spielberg’s underrated animated “The Adventures of Tintin”, based on the comic books of Belgium cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the name Hergé and based his title character in Brussels. The comic books were something I treasured as a child and Spielberg’s vision is a near perfect adaptation of Hergé’s work.

Twitter Thoughts—March 2016 Week 2

Featuring the films:

Space Station 76 (2014) ***½

Wishful Drinking (2010) ***

Man of Steel (2013) *½

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) ****

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) **

Week 2 of March was five movies. Pretty simple. Pretty good.

“Space Station 76” was the surprise of the bunch. It’s set up like some sort of period space adventure spoof. With a costume and production design straight from the mid ‘70s, the movie begins like some sort of spoof exploring social issues that couldn’t have been mentioned at that time, like the class system, female equality in the workplace and homosexuality. As the plot moves along, however, its approach to these social issues becomes more serious and it turns into a serious drama with the flavoring of a movie like “The Ice Storm”. This might be a transition some audiences can’t make. It is quite unclear exactly for whom this movie is made, and yet it worked quite effectively on me.

Twitter Thoughts—March 2016 Week 1

Featured shows and films:

Scream Queens, season 1 (13, 45-min. eps. 2015) **

The X-Files, season 10 (6, 45-min. eps, 2016) ***½

Agent Carter, season 2 (10, 45-min. eps. 2016) ***½

The Age of the Medici, mini-series (3, 90 min. eps. 1972-1973) **

The Witch (2016) ****

Gandhi (1982) ***½

It was a light week—lots of extracurricular activities for the kids this week—but I did finish up a few television shows and took in a couple of heavy investment movies. “Scream Queens” was a show I started watching as it aired and just had too much trouble getting into it. It seemed to suffer from a similar problem from creator Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s other horror anthology series “American Horror Story” in that each season seems to be too saturated in ideas and not enough in substance. The fact that “Scream Queens” is a comedy horror anthology helps in that respect, which is why I finally returned to it. After four or five episodes it seemed to calm down a little with turning in every horror idea the writers could think of, but as is also always the case with “American Horror Story” it seemed to take far too long to wrap things up. It would’ve worked much better with 10 episodes than it does with 13. It’ll have to have a damn good cast and very interesting premise to get me back in next season.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—Dracula Untold (2014) ***

PG-13, 94 min.

Director: Gary Shore

Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Bram Stoker (characters)

Starring: Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, Charles Dance, Diarmaid Murtagh, Paul Kaye, William Houston, Noah Huntley

“I’m so sick of origin stories.” That seems to be becoming a mantra from filmgoers in this age of the comic book movie where origin stories are everything. I’ve never been much of a mind to think that way. A story is a story, origin or otherwise. What people are sick of is the same superhero origin story over and over again. How many times have we seen the origin stories of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man? Now, Dracula… that’s one we haven’t seen before.

Of course, one of my big problems with so many of today’s vampire stories is that the storytellers have forgotten what the vampire mythology is all about. All too often vampires are turned into superheroes, which is just wrong. Unfortunately, this is just that type of vampire movie. It lacks all the classic themes of the vampire mythos. Considering that those tropes seem all but forgotten today, I’m willing to give into the fact that this is going to be a vampire superhero origin story. Once you give yourself up to that fact, it’s not such a bad movie. It ain’t scary, but it’s enjoyable.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—Manhunter (1986) ****

R, 124 min. (director's cut)

Director: Michael Mann

Writers: Michael Mann, Thomas Harris (novel “Red Dragon”)

Starring: William Petersen, Denis Farina, Tom Noonan, Kim Griest, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Stephen Lang, David Seaman, Benjamin Hendrickson

So, the best show to get canceled from television this year was “Hannibal”, which remarkably made it through three very dark and twisted seasons. Of all things Hannibal Lecter related, it is by far my favorite. But, Lecter has certainly made an impression before. In celebration of those three wonderful seasons, I decided to watch all five of the Hannibal franchise films for Horrorfest.

The police procedural aspect of most of these films generally places them outside of the horror genre in my mind, yet Hannibal Lecter is one of the greatest movie monsters ever created. So I wanted to look at them from a horror mindset. Certainly the television show is rooted solidly in horror, yet its creator, Bryan Fuller, intended to keep references to the novel storylines throughout the series. So, how much of that horror do the movie versions of these stories contain?

“Manhunter”, the first adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novel “Red Dragon” and first movie appearance of Hannibal Lector, retains the least amount of horror movie aspects of the bunch. Directed by Michael Mann in full 80’s gear, it retains the crisp “Miami Vice” feel to his imagery. Note that in this vision, the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane is depicted with entirely white walls and features. No colors of any kind. This is, of course, how Mann envisions the clinical, completely sanitized. It is 180 degrees removed from the grimy, dungeon-like depictions of the institution in “The Silence of the Lambs” and the later adaptation of the same story.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—House (1977) ***½

NR, 88 min.

Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Writers: Chiho Katsura, Chigumi Ôbayashi (original story)

Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Satô, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Saho Sasazawa, Asei Kobayashi

Have you ever seen one of those Japanese variety shows where you are wondering just what the heck is going on? Well, the 1977 cult horror film “House” comes from the same mindset. In it you will witness a floating head attack a friend, a piano eat its player, a girl who loves to clean killed by linens, a man turn into a pile of bananas, a woman taking a bath attacked by hair, an old woman who likes to hang out in the broken refrigerator, and a skeleton dancing in the background of many scenes without any explanation. But, even that list of absurdities fails to do the movie justice. It is one that must be witnessed to be believed.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—It Follows (2015) ****

R, 100 min.

Director/Writer: David Robert Mitchell

Starring: Maika Monroe, Kier Gilchrist, Lili Sepe, Olivia Luccardi, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary

It’s always a bit of a cheat for a critic to come to a movie after both sides have had their chance at it. As is often the case with underground hits, after an initial wave of incredible praise for the project comes an almost equal wave of disparagement against it. With the indie horror flick “It Follows”, initial reviews hailed it as the most original work of horror in the past ten years or so. It has since been reduced to “meh” is many circles. The most public of the charges against it came from director Quentin Tarantino, who praised its originality, but accused writer/director David Robert Mitchell of breaking his own mythology. Perhaps the greatest praise I can give the movie is that while I watched it, all of these opinions from others dropped from my mind and I was immersed into a narrative that I never could have foreseen.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—Horns (2013) **

R, 120 min.

Director: Alexandre Aja

Writers: Keith Bunin, Joe Hill (novel)

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Juno Temple, Kelli Garner, James Remar, Kathleen Quinlan, Heather Graham, David Morse

So, I seem to have gone for a Stephen King related start to my Horrorfest ’15. For those of you who aren’t aware Joe Hill, the author of the novel “Horns” upon which this movie is based, is the son of King. His writing is very similar to King’s. From what I’ve read of his, he might be even better than his father. I have not read “Horns”, however, so I came into this movie fresh. I’m a little shocked at how similarly this story is structured to some of his father’s work. It definitely shares some character structure with the stories of King’s “It” and “Dreamcatcher”. It also may share King’s curse of having horror maestros mishandle the material.

Horror Thoughts ‘15—Maximum Overdrive (1986) *

R, 97 min.

Director/Writer: Stephen King (also short story “Trucks”)

Starring: Emilio Esteves, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short, Ellen McElduff, J.C. Quinn, Christopher Murney, Holter Graham, Frankie Faison, Pat Miller, Jack Canon, Barry Bell, John Brasington, J. Don Ferguson, Leon Rippy, Bob Gooden, Giancarlo Esposito, Stephen King

It is well past time I began posting for this year’s Horrorfest, which I began over two weeks ago and already includes five titles (posts for each coming soon?). Anyway, I started this year’s Horrorfest off with a fizzle, for a change. I usually try to kick off each Horrorfest with one of the year’s better horror flicks. This year I said, “Screw that!” I literally did. I said, “Screw that. I’m going to kick this year’s festivities with a piece of crap.” And, there are few horror flicks that are as big a piece of crap as Stephen King’s directorial debut—and luckily only feature length directorial effort—“Maximum Overdrive”.

Penny Thoughts ‘15—Moneyball (2011) ****

PG-13, 133 min.

Director: Bennett Miller

Writers: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis (book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt, Stephen Bishop, Reed Diamond, Brent Jennings, Ken Medlock, Tammy Blanchard, Jack McGee, Vyto Ruginis, Nick Searcy, Glenn Morshower, Casey Bond, Nick Porrazzo, Kerris Dorsey, Arliss Howard, Reed Thompson, Spike Jonze

The 2015 regular season of Major League Baseball began today. There was a time when I never would’ve known it was the first day of baseball. I wish I still did not. I hate baseball. I hated it when I played it as a child. My parents made me play. Despite my hatred of it, that was probably the right thing for them to do. It did help build my character. They only made me play for so long and once I was a certain age they let me decide. The last year I played was the first year my age group did our own pitching; and the coach wisely chose me to be a pitcher. For the first time ever I actually enjoyed playing the game. No more left field. But sure enough, when I had a choice the next year, I didn’t even flinch when my parents asked if I wanted to play again. Nope! I was done with baseball.

Penny Thoughts ‘15—Dazed & Confused (1993) ****

R, 102 min.

Director/Writer: Richard Linklater

Starring: Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Sasha Jenson, Marissa Ribisi, Deena Martin, Michelle Bruke, Cole Hauser, Christine Harnos, Wiley Wiggins, Mark Vandermuelen, Esteban Powell, Jeremy Fox, Ben Affleck, Jason O. Smith, Christin Hinojosa, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Catherine Morris, Nicky Katt, Parker Brooks, Rick Moser, Terry Mross, Richard Dillard, Fred Lerner, David Blackwell

I recently decided to start a vinyl record collection. It all came about from an article (that has since been lost in the vastness of the web) about collecting music. I was an avid music collector throughout high school and college. I collected cassettes and then reluctantly moved on to CDs as they were beginning to change the music soundscape. I remember the debates about analog and digital recording and mastering. Who remembers when CDs would sport a letter code of three letters consisting of ‘A’ and ‘D’ to distinguish which part of the production process was done analog or digitally? ADD, or DDD or different variations of such.