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RHAPSODY
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1.
Movie & Music
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by Constantine Soo
June 28, 2005
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My dear readers, it is my pleasure to announce the commencement of a new Dagogo column
to you, named “Rhapsody”.
During the midst of writing music CD and audio equipment reviews, I have often concocted
thoughts that couldn’t fit quite well into the context of reviews. Having discarded enough of them
in the past, I shall make this column, henceforth, a space to which I can expedite and preserve
them for further development.
Quite frankly, Rhapsody is a column for me to rant so that me and my evil twin can coexist in
cordiality and spare each other the fights over priorities and the other one’s worthlessness.
Sometime in the future, you may be reading other Dagogo Rhapsodies in an air-conditioned
room in a summer day, or an overcast, lazy afternoon; in whichever case, I hope my latest
frenzies will be worthy of your time, and perhaps even an email, and that you would choose to
visit again. Here we go…
RHAPSODY 1: MOVIE & MUSIC
Movie-watching and music-listening are two recreational activities that have occupied the
American home of the 21st century. In my opinion, the function of a music-listening audio system
should be given priority over the movie-replay function of a home theater system.
Music has always played a pivotal role in our lives, whether it is part of our upbringing, or is
simply enjoyed via an audio system for its entertainment value like many of us do. Movies, on
the other hand, served immensely as a cultural identifier in Holly-wood’s portrayal of our social
standards. Gradual advancement in technology has finally enabled both activities to be
engaged in the entire comfort of one’s home. For music-listening, there is the hobby of home
audio; for movie-watching, there is the home theater fever.
Requiring a minimum of 5 speakers plus a subwoofer, not to mention an army of audio and
video equipment, the high-end home theater hobby can be vastly more expensive and
domestically imposing than its audio-only counterpart for a seamless and thorough installation
and operation. Evidently, only the financially well-endowed would be able to indulge into this
hobby, and they are the new breed of customers for retailers of the high-end audio industry.
The Music Angle
Now, just like any other hobby, home audio is what you make of it, and is as costly as you want it
to be. In the decades before compact disc, a good audio equipment could cost an audiophile
several months of his income; but that was usually just about the furthest extent for what one was
required to pay to obtain the state-of-the-art. In the decades after compact disc, accelerated
progress in our understanding of the physical world around us has steered many audiophiles
and manufacturers into a different direction progressively.
Junji Kimura of 47 Laboratory commented in a Dagogo article on the kind of fun he had as an
audiophile back in the early 60s, a time when technically savvy hobbyists bought inexpensive
parts off the shelves of ubiquitous electronic boutiques and constructed their own equipment.
They were the driving force of the stereo hobby.
That method had to end, as more of those DIYers become more organized, and soon
companies emerged and were structured to manufacture finished, “turnkey” audio equipment.
Naturally, more and more non-technical consumers gravitated towards this hobby that they were
once unqualified for; then, their craving drove supply, and the largest group of audiophiles was
thus recruited.
In my view, the audio hobby didn’t take on the amplitude that it possesses today until the 80s
and 90s, when the audio community saw the emergence of steeply-biased solid-state
amplification and a revival of 300B-based, single-ended amplification to address issues raised
by compact disc digital audio at that time.
Of course, technological advancements are oftentimes dazzling achievements trumpeted by
their creators towards competition, at the expense of the maturity of such technologies. Much
like Hollywood studios that compete against each other in presenting eye-opening special
effects achievements to the audience, the same competitive spirit prevails in every industry,
including the high-end audio industry.
The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. This is true to those in either the
manufacturing sector or in the consuming sector. To the manufacturer, advancements in
technical knowledge and manufacturing techniques renew marketing vigor, and the resultant,
twinkling new machines, oftentimes steeply-priced, are always audiophiles’ irresistible object of
obsession.
Just like Home Theater fans, audiophiles are in the home audio hobby for purposes not limited
to obtaining enlightenment. Whether one pursues this hobby for the sake of music or for
reasons entirely unrelated is beside the point; the fact that this hobby of ours can bring
excitement and satisfaction to just about anyone with an interest in domestic sound reproduction
is. Musical nourishment, new equipment frenzies, satisfaction in conducting your own
symphonies (in front of your system), etc, are all elements that brought us together in our quest
for order and sanity in this new world we live in.
The Movie Angle
Virtually all high-end audio dealers carry home theater systems, some even provide custom
installation for a complete package. It is likely that many of these fine salons’ valued patrons
helped foster their retailers’ gradual migration from that of a 2-channel audio specialty store to
the custom installation, home theater establishment. A visiting manufacturer recently informed
me of a custom, home theater installation project costing upward of $300k. More than a quarter
million. That’s enough to sustain every contractor involved, including the high-end audio salon,
for a long time.
With such revenue potential, it is instantly clear that in order for the high-end audio industry to
survive and to continue supplying the majority of audiophiles with sensibly priced products, they
need to capitalize on this home theater market segment swiftly. Of course, whether or not these
manufacturers will continue to sustain the 2-channel side of the business after reaping certain
home theater success is sadly unpredictable.
The possible future state of affair in the home audio and home theater markets as relayed to me
by patrons, retailers and manufacturers alike is intriguing. Not being disparaging towards either
hobby, I reckon that home audio and home theater share superficially similar functions, purposes
and traits, but are alarmingly differing in the degrees and types of satisfaction thus produced.
Before the home-theater fever, many of us relished in the progressive excitement of planning a
movie-going trip, driving there, entering the theater, lining up at concession stands and grabbing
seats as close to the center of the auditorium as possible. For the movie fans among us whose
destination for movie-watching continues to be theater-bound, nowadays’ theater houses are
creatures of a different breed than yesterday’s modest, single-screen cinema palaces that
conveyed Hollywood’s bygone grandeur.
Today, we arrive at nicely slated, massive parking lots of large theater complexes, and we are
presented with magnificent lobbies upon entering the theaters. Furthermore, many of us enjoy
trickling through the orderly concession departments, before having to resist the distraction of
ten other movies’ and their respective auditoriums listed on the gigantic message board
overhead. This new, exciting, mesmerizing and powerful experience is completed as you enter
the auditorium and choose your preferred seats.
Curiosity may kill the cat; but the heightened level of anticipation that is self-repeating as in the
theater-going ritual absolutely kills our species. So attempts the home theater purveyors in
recreating a virtual cinema-going experience in their patrons’ homes.
As an art form, the motion picture is an indispensable humanity identifier most certainly, although
at the core of the American culture is Hollywood and its stars.
Among the heroes of the motion picture industry are its backstage producers, directors and
staff. To the credit of this spectacular, and oftentimes wealthy workforce, the American motion
picture industry has been at the cutting edge in the art of make-believe. Movie producers will
have succeeded once their works generate sympathetic, and sometimes even intense,
emotions from the audience; but even that is now out of fashion.
There are producers of affirming, inspirational and uplifting movies, and then there are those
who make movies for the sheer sake of shock.
Years of accumulative experience and observation by quite a few of these extremely talented
Hollywood producers have forged a failsafe knowledge base of what to do in any given movie
genre and how to do it most dramatically, with the most curious exception of the latest Star
Wars: Revenge of the Sith ; but the particular element of shock in movies has been favored
increasingly over a universe of others.
Among movie genres, action, horror and sci-fi movies are the three movie genres that draw their
audience with the promise of sheer shock. In these movies, stories depicting actions of mere
mortals in real surroundings are no match in its shock value to those featuring characters with
super-human capabilities confronting odds of impossibility, although the plot may contain just a
fleeting, singular logical probability. Just don’t ask me to explain the logic of flying martial arts
masters, because you won’t like the answer.
With all the epics future and past, be it of factual or fictitious breed, all depicted in hauntingly real
details and environment, we’ve entered officially into the era of storytelling that stimulates its
audience’s audio and visual senses at an unprecedented intensity. Unfortunately, our human
psyche adapts quickly to the dealing of shocks in movies, and we require progressively higher
dosage of impact in our search for worthier cinematic experiences.
Interestingly, movie-making in the 21st century also represents a more stringent regimen for the
actors. As special effects become more and more subtle in portraying the unimaginable,
actions on the big screen grow more intense proportionately. The kind of 6-month training
frequently demanded of many of our action actors of the day is taking place on a scale unheard
of until the late 90’s.
Consequently, the cinema experience has intensified exponentially as studios compete among
themselves to making the most shocking in audio and visual experience on the largest of
screens, thus attaining the accolade of having created the latest in ultimate fantasy. Movies like
Secondhand Lions and Henry V are considered negligible affairs by the majority of moviegoers
and not worthy of their time.
The Media
There are profound differences in what movie and music offer.
The fact that one is glued to activities on the screen for the length of the movie notwithstanding,
the primarily visual medium hypnotizes with its overwhelming appeal to the curious mind, and
deepens its audience’s craving for more at the conclusion of the presentation. At the end, we
are only limited by our ability to sustain the quantity of the 2-hour presentations in a row.
In this day and age of heightened awareness, it can be said that the sensual stimuli of the
theater medium is putting the unequivocally audio-only medium of music reproduction in a
distinct disadvantage. On the other hand, to those who have long enjoyed home music
reproduction, the home theater galore is perhaps not as tempting.
Languages are invented for enlightened communications between you and me; but I believe
music evokes the core sentience in each of us and elevates it to the conscious mind so we can
ultimately relive our own innocence. In addition, when one listens to music, his mind is in a highly
focused level of consciousness that transcends the mundaneness of daily life and transports him
to a landscape afar; his mind is freed to take flight, becoming one with the richness of a realm of
pure thoughts as effectuated by the composer.
Most unique among musical genres in properties harnessed is acoustic music. The excitation
of tones via acoustical means yields a realm conducive to human comprehension. Be it deeply-
rooted classical or contemporary compositions, or even the highly descriptive and suggestive
motion picture soundtracks, the sound of acoustic instruments in their human-agitated variations
and unpredictability empower the listener’s mind like a feedback of energy.
Acoustic instruments can convey morbid desolation and lingering remorse more readily, and it
can also rekindle the young love and joy we all experienced. There is tremendous satisfaction
ingrained in the music listening experience, and the rewards in spiritual nourishment via music is
derived from the listener’s own humanity, and it stays in you and enriches you; even sad music
generates the same spiritual enrichment as well.
It is more satisfying spending one hour in music listening than 2 hours in movie watching.
Because of the activity’s very nature of seeking to relate another person’s story to its audience,
movie watching may generate intense and sympathetic emotions from the audience, but the
level of enlightenment movies offer remains largely passive and superficial. With notable
exceptions, the emotions generated by watching a particular type of movie usually are
sensations meant for brief, entertainment values. Revelations and wisdom can be conveyed in
movies but are never emphasized, and sensationalism incites short-lived impacts and very little
else.
What else?
Then, of course, how can I not mention the excessive decibel levels set up in auditoriums for
movie presentations? Or the misbehaving patrons whose noisy indiscretions we all have
endured? Or the kicking patrons behind your row, who should’ve shown more appreciation for
this extra leg room and thus, consideration for the back of your seat?
Yet, my most solemn complaint for this theater-going experience is a charge decades in the
making: with all the talents and wisdom in Hollywood, why is it that in all the interior shots of
movies, especially in the extravagantly, lavishly decorated ones, that there has never been one
with an audiophile stereo system, in an optimal listening room? Every time I go to see a movie,
it bothers me a great deal to be shown a beautifully constructed living room with all that listening
space wasted.
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ON STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH
In its nearly 3 decades of operation, Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic has made every
fantasy came to life, and George Lucas’ commissioning of composer John Williams for its Star
Wars soundtrack raised symphonic music into stardom status for good. We’ve been taken on
adventures from the deepest depths of the planet Earth to the farthest rims of the galaxy, and
were shown epics and horrors of the ancient times to hazards and wonders of possible futures.
What else can there possibly be that we haven’t seen yet? Humanoids that can transform into
different objects? We’ve seen that, too.
The Star Wars novel was one of my first own novel purchases in my teenage years, and it means
something to me to witness the closure of a movie-making circle 28 years later. But the last
trilogy installment is exactly what I have always dreaded in many Sci-Fi’s: all expensive,
supposedly spectacular visuals with weak script and poor directorship. The fleeting emotion
between Padme and Anakin amidst the busy activities on screen throughout the 2-hour movie
couldn’t make up for half the emotion and fun contained in the first Star Wars. The adventures
and fun to which George Lucas introduced us in 1977 are never to be again, and many of us
refuse to believe that continuingly. If only George had the foresight of getting his good friend
Steven Spielberg to direct it for him.
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DAGOGO© 2005
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