31 May 2015

John Williams -- inspired by the Radiophonic Workshop?

It hardly surprises me to hear traces of Radiophonic Workshop-inspired motifs in contemporary film scores, but recently it struck me that a lot of John Williams' work seems to draw on those early influences.

Browsing the WikiDelia page the other day, I came across Delia Derbyshire's Aztec series, and, while listening to 'Exquisite Featherwork', began to think -- where have I heard this before? Eventually the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone soundtrack inevitably came to mind, and particularly the track below. It's always given me the creeps. Perhaps John Williams was inspired by Delia's work?

23 May 2015

2 May 2015

Very tired bears

These crazy photos of bears are from Skansen outdoor museum in Stockholm (the first ever open-air museum in the world, apparently) and they still never fail to amuse me. Ok, there's nothing funny about animals in captivity, but these guys have lots of space, and their idleness is probably not a result of depression, though I wouldn't know. In any case, you just can't deny the comic potential of those poses...