8.05.2008
The Wild Hunt's Music Picks!
It has been awhile since I discussed music here, so I thought I would provide some capsule reviews of recently released music that sings to the Pagan soul (or at least my Pagan soul). All of these artists can be heard on my weekly A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast, and are easily obtainable through mail-order or digital download.
Falling You - "Faith"John Zorko and his rotating band of "magicians" have created yet another magnificent collection of haunting ethereal soundscapes enhanced by masterful female vocals. This album, like previous Falling You efforts, explores a common theme as expressed through a variety of guest vocalists including Suzanne Perry, Amanda Kramer, and Dru Allen (among others). While "Faith" and Falling You's previous albums may engender admiration from the New Age music scene, don't let that fool you. These compositions are dynamic, engaging, and deeply moving. You can purchase a digital copy of "Faith" from Magnatune for a sliding scale charge of $5-$18 dollars. Physical copies will be available later this month through a variety of online distributors (CD Baby, Amazon).
Incus - "Fire and Bone"While Incus has always evoked the word "tribal" when discussing the band's sound, it hardly seems adequate in discussing the festival-touring juggernaut (including stops at Starwood and the Pagan Spirit Festival) this ever-evolving group of individuals, lead by singer and composer Jason Cohen, has become. As a result, "Fire and Bone", unlike their previous release "Burning Thread", seems to carry the aspirations of a group trying to capture the magic of its hard-won live energy. At times this is successful, like on the energetic opening cut "Claudia Always Eyes", or the slow burn into Russian folk-jam of "Weight (Wait)". However, elsewhere, this album strikes me as transitional, with some missteps keeping the album from eliciting an unreserved endorsement. "Fire and Bone" is a snapshot of an evolving band that hasn't quite captured its lightning in a bottle. This album hasn't been released yet, though you should be able to order it from CD Baby soon.
Sharron Kraus - "The Fox's Wedding"Fans of pastoral British folk are in for a treat. Sharron Kraus, who has been generating buzz for some time now among fans of darkly-inflected folk music, delivers a masterwork that is both mythic and deeply personal. There isn't a weak track to be found here, all the songs seem to lead you towards an ever-shifting seasonal journey that reminds you how deeply personal turning the wheel can truly be. That sacrifice and rebirth are simultaneously inside and outside of us. For fans of "The Wicker Man" soundtrack, surely, but also for those wondering who is envisioning the future of folk music. Wonderful. You can buy a digitial version of "The Fox's Wedding" at Amazon, or order a physical copy from Jnana Records (or Amazon).
Silver Summit - "Silver Summit"A heady mix of psychedelic folk and mysticism, Silver Summit's debut album is an ode to what lays beyond. The album plays like an initiatory journey to the otherworld, from the opening chimes of "Music In the Afterlife", to the breathy chant-like "In-Between Place" (appropriately placed near the the middle of the album) to somber and spooky closer "The Bridge". You are left feeling changed and deeper entwined in mystery than before you started. It is little wonder that other reviewers are describing Silver Summit as "bewitched", "a collision of heaven and earth, fire and water", or for "sonic voyagers seeking to ascend to the next level." You can buy a digital copy of "Silver Summit" from Amazon, or you can order a physical copy through Drag City/Language of Stone.
Other picks:
Fern Knight - "Fern Knight" - A mix of folk, prog, and classical elements that serves as "an ode to all things green and living", and showcases the amazing songwriting abilities of Margaret Wienk. [Purchase]
Lux Interna - [a lantern carried in blood and skin] - A retrospective collection of haunting neo-folk that explores a Gnostic band finding the "inner light" in a world of illusions. [Purchase]
Pamela Wyn Shannon - "Courting Autumn": A psych/pastoral-folk exploration of the waning year that highlights a shining musical talent. [Purchase]
Labels: A Darker Shade of Pagan, music, Paganism, review
7.26.2008
Stage Magic and Litigation
The Law and Magic blog's coverage of a recent ruling concerning a defamation lawsuit against Magic Magazine, and an angry magician, caught my eye. What does the world of stage magic have to do with practitioners of Paganism? As it turns out, quite a bit, at least in my opinion. The case involved Magic Magazine's review of a card trick magician Bill Nagler was selling, in short, the review wasn't favorable.
"The Court noted that the plaintiff, Mr. Nagler, alleged two causes of action, defamation and product disparagement, against Mr. Henderson, and the publisher of Magic Magazine. Mr. Nagler apparently thought that Mr. Henderson "bought in" to the notion that Mr. Nagler was guilty of exposing the secrets behind other magicians' tricks and thus wrote a negative review. He accused Mr. Henderson of making false statements of fact concerning the magic trick under review. Mr. Henderson and Magic Magazine defended by saying that the statements were protected opinion, and also that they did not "concern" Mr. Nagler."
The court, in its wisdom, rejected the accusations of defamation and disparagement.
"The Court examined the statements to which Mr. Nagler objected and said that they were either 'rhetorical hyberbole' or unverifiable 'supported interpretation.'"
So why is this important to us? Aren't there loads of legal precedents protecting negative reviews? What is important is the circumstances and language used. While couched in the world of stage magic, this case reminded me of the many negative reviews I've read of "magickal" books by authors like Silver RavenWolf, Douglas Monroe, and Ed Fitch. In fact, I'm surprised we haven't seen some vengeful Pagan/occult author let fly with a lawsuit with charges almost identical to the ones seen here . Oath-bound material, wounded egos, and "massaged" facts are certainly found in both communities.
The court's decision that 'rhetorical hyberbole', even if it is insulting or unkind, is protected so long as the opinions are grounded by 'supported interpretation' of facts should be welcome news to any Pagan magazine or web site that regularly publishes reviews. In other words, you can say things like this...
"Personally, I believe one of the biggest problems we face today is Silver Ravenwolf. Particularly ironic is the fact that the "Craft Code of Honor" that she displays on her own website includes "Respect the religion of others." So she's a bigot and a hypocrite."
And you should be protected under the law so long as you support your interpretation with facts (as you see them) that led you to that opinion. That doesn't mean that the target of your negative review can't file a lawsuit, it just means he or she isn't likely to win.
7.13.2008
Movie Review: Hellboy II
"Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has started to look like a legitimate successor to Ovid. Del Toro is not so much a creator of myths as a collector of them, a transhistorical myth nerd whose pantheon of influences ranges from Hesiod to Harryhausen (with liberal helpings of steam punk and Catholic iconography)." - Dana Stevens, Slate.com
The thing that startled me the most about "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" was that the emotional climax of the film, at least for me, didn't involve any of the main characters. Instead, the longest and most lingering sadness comes after a confrontation with a forest elemental. I won't give anything away, but this scene, and several smaller scenes like it throughout "Hellboy", underscore a theme director Guillermo del Toro has been exploring through much of his work. Most notably in the Academy Award-winning "Pan's Labyrinth". The conflict between a world filled with enchantment, and one that denies the imagination, that eradicates the sacredness of our world.
Hellboy vs. the forest elemental.
While the representation of soulless clockwork progress is represented by Spanish fascists in "Pan's Labyrinth", in "The Golden Army" humanity itself is suspect. As the Christianity Today review ponders: "Is the human race worth saving?"
"In the original Hellboy, the villains were adversaries like demons, Nazis, gods of chaos, assassins and necromancers—characters understood to be evil more or less by nature or by definition ... Hellboy II shifts from this kind of mythic good-vs-evil storytelling to something more like classical mythology, with variously flawed characters on all sides."
The character of Hellboy, wanting nothing more than to be "out" and loved by the people he secretly protects, is stunned when he isn't greeted as a hero and is instead treated as a spectacle at best, and a danger at worst. The movie asks, in a variety of ways, should he really be on humanity's side? Does humanity, with its various sins against a dying world of faerie, and an increasingly poisoned Earth, even deserve saving? The film never directly answers that question, though you can be fairly certain that Del Toro himself would prefer a humanity that didn't seem so eager to do away with the strange and fantastical.
Guillermo del Toro supports HETFET!
Of course "Hellboy" is also a big summer action film, and there are plenty of explosions, fights, comedic moments, and one-liners to please those who want nothing more than two hours of entertainment. However, unlike the stupid and nihilistic "Wanted", or the enjoyable but uneven "Incredible Hulk", Del Toro wraps his entry into Summer blockbuster season with layers of insight and deeper meaning for those looking for something more. What other summer blockbuster can successfully pen love-letters to James Whale and Hayao Miyazaki while including a Barry Manilow sing-along?
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" isn't "Pan's Labyrinth", but it is an enjoyable Summer film that reaches further than any genre film is expected to. Do yourself a favor and experience the amazing visuals on a big screen, you'll be glad you did. Wild Hunt approved and recommended!
Labels: Faerie, film, Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy II, movies, otherworld, Pan's Labyrinth, review
8.12.2007
Review: Stardust and Rome
My schedule allowed me to see the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" during its opening weekend (a rare occurrence in my household), and since I plugged the movie on my blog earlier this week I thought I would provide a review. But let me preface by quoting a small bit from Roger Ebert's review that mirrored many of my own feelings concerning "Stardust".
"There are lots of other good things in the movie, but they play more like vaudeville acts than part of a coherent plot. It's a film you enjoy in pieces, but the jigsaw never gets solved. I liked it, but "The Princess Bride" it's not."
There are many good small things in the film. Michelle Pfeiffer is charming as the witch Lamia, and the Greek chorus of dead brothers are entertaining throughout, but the film itself is something of a mess and the romance lays the syrup on so thick diabetics should be warned. Though it has been some time since I read Gaiman's original work, I don't believe it was so openly mushy and sentimental. That more than anything else separates this film from the modern classic of swashbuckling fantasies "The Princess Bride" (which it has been compared to several times), a film that wasn't afraid to add a generous dose of cynicism, sarcasm, and doubt (not to mention a script as tight as a steel drum).
Perhaps the greatest sin of "Stardust" is that it doesn't trust the audience to make connections for themselves, everything is explained and narrated to a point where the characters don't have a chance to expand and breathe. We all know that fairy tales involving dashing heroes will (generally) end up with a happy ending, but most of us don't watch for the pay-off happy ending, we watch to see how well the storyteller convinces us that it might NOT work. In "Princess Bride" we are shown an array of characters with their own fully-formed motivations helping, hindering, or confusing the main quest for true love, in "Stardust" every plot point seems like just another tick on a check-list to "happily ever after". "Stardust" isn't a bad film per-say, like I said before there some bright moments that can charm you, but I was hoping for a classic and ended up with a trifle.
On a completely different note, I started watching the second (and last) season of the HBO television drama "Rome", which recently came out on DVD. I don't have cable, so it has been quite awhile since I visited these characters, and I must say that I had forgotten how fresh "Rome" is in its ambition and scope. The aftermath of Ceasar's death (which happened at the end of the first season) is handled very well (though history is always fudged a bit in this show), and as always religion is everywhere in the series.
"If the past is a foreign country, then ancient religion may be its most exotic locale. The HBO series "Rome," which returns for its second season on Sunday, is hardly "Fodor's Guide to Paganism," but by venturing off some well-worn cinematic paths, the show has given the worship of the gods a generous treatment in a genre dominated by stories of gladiators and the advent of Christ. The creators of the serial drama, which focuses on the power struggles during the last days of the Roman Republic in the first century B.C.E., wanted to portray Roman religion not as a doomed prologue to Christianity but as a vibrant and meaningful part of everyday life."
Religion is taken so seriously that when a character commits a major act of blasphemy in the second episode, you feel truly shocked by the action. It is a shame that "Rome" will not see a third season (due to the staggeringly large budget), but we can at least enjoy the two soap-operatic seasons of the Roman Empire's rise.
Labels: film, HBO, Neil Gaiman, Paganism, review, Rome, Stardust
