Sunday 24 December 2017

The war of the worlds


Herbert George Wells, more popularly known as HG Wells, was a prolific English writer of novels, short stories, works of social commentary, satire, biography and autobiography. He is best remembered for his science fiction novels and I remember reading the abridged version of The Invisible Man during my schooldays. Apart from this story orf invisibility, his other science fiction works imagined time travel (The Time Machine), alien invasion and biological engineering (The Island of Dr Moreau). But it was for The War of the Worlds, written in 1898, that Wells is now most famous for.

The War of the Worlds spawned seven films, various radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, video games, a television series and sequels or parallel stories by other authors.

One of the most notorious adaptations of the science fiction was the 1938 radio broadcast that was narrated and directed by George Orson Welles, an American actor, director, writer and producer. The first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a news bulletin and was often described as having led to widespread panic by some listeners who, not having listened in to the programme from the start, believed that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually taking place. However, there are some sources that claimed these reports of panic were mostly overly exaggerated.

The first The War of the Worlds film was produced in 1953 and it starred Gene Barry. In 2005, Tom Cruise was the leading actor in a Steven Spielberg version of the story.

In 1978, Jeff Wayne was inspired enough to produce a musical version of the story. It was a concept double album with its main format being progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration by Richard Burton and leitmotifs to carry the story. The vocals in the album were provided by Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), David Essex, Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) and Julie Covington. Wayne himself provided some narration at the end of the album.

I remember first hearing Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (to give the work its full title) in 1980 and, like many other people then, owned a pirated audio cassette version of the album after requesting it taped by the local record store. Later, I "progressed" to owning a copied version of this album on a compact disc. It was only very much later that I managed to lay my hands on an original but second-hand copy of the vinyl record. Having owned all three formats - cassette, compact disc and record - I can assure you that there is nothing comparable to holding the records in your hands and listening to the music loud through the hi-fi system!

By the way, the late Richard Burton's voice is super-superb on this record. His doom-ridden but brilliant reading really brought out the drama and the atmosphere in the recording.


Side One: The eve of the war, Horsell Common and the heat ray
Side Two: The artilleryman and the fighting machine, Forever Autumn, Thunder child
Side Three: The red weed (Part 1), The spirit of Man, The red weed (Part 2)
Side Four: Brave new world, Dead London, Epilogue (Part 1), Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA)



Tuesday 5 December 2017

Remembering David Cassidy


I do remember watching The Partridge Family over local television in the early years of the 1970s at a time when syndicated television programmes took years before reaching the Malaysian audience. The biggest star of the show was, of course, David Cassidy who was the son of actor Jack Cassidy. The younger Cassidy had charisma and girls over here also went ga-ga over him like their counterparts elsewhere. David Cassidy died two weeks ago on 21 Nov, a few days after being admitted to a Florida hospital for liver and kidney failure.

I had been wondering whether I had an album of The Partridge Family music in my collection but apparently not. Then I remembered that I did have a copy of Cassidy's debut solo album called Cherish, that I had bought second-hand from someone about four years ago.


Side One: Being together, I just wanna make you happy, Could it be forever, Blind hope, I lost my chance, My first night alone without you
Side Two: We could never be friends ('Cause we've been lovers too long, Where is the morning, I am a clown, Cherish, Ricky's tune



Friday 1 December 2017

Li Chun (立春), 2018


After years of flicking through the pages, my copy of Joey Yap's book, The Ten Thousand Year Calendar, is almost coming apart. It has been my most faithful reference companion as I consult it every year to find out the date and time of various cultural festivals such as Tang Chek (冬至) and Cheng Beng (清明).

But it is for the festival of Li Chun (立春) or Lip Chun, which actually heralds the start of the  new year according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, that I consult this reference book the most and luckily, other than the pages falling off, the book is still more or less intact.

Incidentally, we of the Penang Baba Nyonya community have another name for this festival, which is Jip Chun, where Jip means literally "the entering of" and Chun meaning, of course, Spring. Jip Chun = The Entering of Spring. Get it?

For 2018, Li Chun will occur before the start of the popularly known Chinese New Year festivities. To be exact, the date for Li Chun is 4 February 2018 which corresponds to the 19th day of the 12th Chinese lunar month. So, if you are like me and have to paste a new Chun (春) character on the rice bucket, please do so shortly after 5.30 in the morning.

I've been writing about Li Chun in this blog since Year 2007 and you can still read them here:
Li Chun, 2017
Li Chun, 2016
Li Chun, 2015
Li Chun, 2014
Li Chun, 2013
Li Chun, 2012
Li Chun, 2011
Li Chun, 2010
Li Chun, 2009
Li Chun, 2008
Li Chun, 2007