Semi-drunken rambings

Had a few drinks and played some sorta low-key drinking game with a bunch of guys (and one girl) tonight. It was good fun. We also had family guy, then Dane Cook playing in the background. Who is this Cook dude? Is he like the newest fad since the one featuring Chuck Norris that lasted ~2 weeks starting about 3.5 weeks ago? He is a pretty hilarious comedian (Cook, not Norris) and what makes him different from your standard funnyguy is his total out-there-ness. I am aware that's not a word, but I've had enough ale to not care enough to bother straining to find the right adjective... Anyway he made an amusing analogy, which he described as perfect, for being single. He says its like there's this big party, and like everyone cool is there, and it's totally awesome, but you weren't invited. And you only find out about it when you walk past the place, in the rain. And you kinda look in the window, and see everyone partying, and you're like, "man, I wish I was in there right now." But then one day you're actually in the party and it's like "jesus christ where's my jacket. I've had enough of this party; I've been here six years and I want to find a new party to go to..."

Well I've never dated anyone for six years, but I get the point. So ironic. I don't know how poignant the analogy is... but the first half is fairly applicable, at least.

I finally finished (yesterday afternoon) downloading the file I started in mid-January... every single James Bond movie. So these last two days have been kinda Bond crazy for me. I've watched six movies. And I have this awesome suspense music from the last one (You Only Live Twice) stuck in my head. It's not musically related to the Bond theme at all, but it's a fantastic set of four base chords upon which is built an incredible driving suspense theme for the movie. It starts out so subtly... gradually builds.... until eventually the whole orchestra is belting out these thrilling chords as the Spectre spacecraft slowly engulfs the american Jupiter orbiter...

Incidentally this is the one from which the Austin Powers series takes the image of Dr. Evil (even with a cat), the hollowed out volcano, the legions of guards in colour-coded suits, and the concept of the villain pointlessly keeping Bond alive for far too long while he keeps causing trouble. And of course a rather unnecessarily complicated scheme to get the US and Russia to have a nuclear war, in the aftermath of which he would step in and take control of the world.

Like there'd be anything left to control.

Bah! Enough semi-drunken rambling.

G

PS here's the chord progression:
A- (fifth)
F+ (minor third)
Bb- (major sixth) (and since minor, has minor root's raised leading note as it's minor third; very good suspense sound)
D- (root)
Played with a relatively big orchestra... and very well orchestrated. Vibes play all of each chord in two quick arpeggios for each bar... and flutes trill the seventh-eighth or eighth-second on each one... the buildup is sooo good! John Barry wrote the music... he did much of the early bond music. We may think of the sounds as cheesy, but really some of the chords and sounds are amazing... and sometimes beyond their time (I haven't heard such complex music in any other movies - even LoTR! However Howard Shore creates such a great depth of atmosphere with the LoTR music that I find it to be much more effective).