Here is a grammar challenge that David Foster Wallace once gave his students.
Fellow grammar nerds, enjoy.
Author Archives: Tin Man
Back to the Future Score Release
I received a real treat in the mail yesterday.
As some of you might know, Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time. I fell in love with it at first sight in the movie theater in the summer of 1985. I was 11 years old and I went to see it with my best friend, and I was so tense during the climactic clocktower scene near the end of the movie that I literally chewed my plastic soda straw in two.
The film has a terrific score by Alan Silvestri, but the soundtrack album that came out in 1985 contains only two tracks of that score: the theme and an “overture,” which consists of several cues strung together to give a dramatic overview of the movie. The rest of the tracks are pop songs from the movie, like “The Power of Love.” It’s a fun album, but fans have wanted a release of the complete score for years. A bootleg of much of the score has been around for a while, but it’s of inferior quality and some things are missing.
And then a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, Intrada Records, a company specializing in movie and TV soundtracks, announced that it was releasing the complete score of the movie, made from the multi-track scoring session masters held by Universal Studios. It’s a 2-CD release: the first disc is the complete score, and the second disc is an earlier version of the score before changes were made. I ordered my copy and it arrived yesterday. In addition to the discs, it has a 24-page booklet with information about the movie, the music, and the recording, as well as several photo stills from the film.
I listened to the first disc yesterday and I was in heaven. It’s been almost a 25-year wait, and I’m so happy to have this now. Thanks, Intrada!
On the Other Hand
This all happened so fast. Until a few hours ago, I didn’t even expect the state senate to vote on marriage equality this session. And then I glanced at the NYTimes.com late this morning and saw the surprising news that they’d be voting today. All the marriage equality proponents have been arguing that no matter how the senate voted, it would be progress if they at least held a vote.
And that’s true. Holding a vote and losing is better than not holding a vote at all. (I think.) Now every senator is on record with a position on marriage rights, so we know whom to target next time. The senate has broken the taboo against voting on it. Progress comes in slow steps — sometimes agonizingly slow steps.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.