Monsters, Mark, Murray, MSO and Ben.

With added Alliteration failure it seems … Anyway, this post if all about my experience at the absolutely superb Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular! I’ve already talk about it on my podcast: http://whoisthemancast.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/who-is-the-man-podcast-episode-40-so-very-spectacularly-symphonic and I added a post about it with pictures to the shows site: http://whoisthemancast.wordpress.com/2012/02/07 but, I’m just seriously geek out about it here!

Now, I’ve posted pictures on the net, played clips on the podcast, shared a video about it, but I haven’t talk enough about the music itself! And the hunour of having Murray Gold, Ben Foster, and Mark Sheppard come, not only to Australia, but to Melbourne – the closest of the major Australian city to us – to play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and take up their respective roles of hosting/conducting/composing and sharing the roles of being brilliant/funny/completely superb!

So the list of the pieces played is varied and lovely, but all of them placed perfectly throughout the concert so we didn’t get too excited, depressed, or geekily happy! Between the pieces being played not only did we have Mark Sheppard hosting but we had a clip of Matt Smith saying hello to Melbourne and telling us to enjoy the show, which we did! Now to the list of pieces played, and I realize me just listing them is nothing like hearing them played live, but bare with me.

The Madman With A Box was the first thing we heard – well, the first piece. When we first got in there we heard the interior T.A.R.D.I.S sound accompanying the Doctor Who Logo with the light pulsing in time with the sound effects – and they it played over clips of the Time Vortex on loop not to make that sound bad, because it added to the clips they played with the next piece: An Untimely Arrival. They played this one after Mark Sheppard introduced himself and then the piece (which he continued to do throughout) and while we heard it they played clips of the T.A.R.D.I.S flying through space, then hurtling towards Earth, flying over London, crashing into Amelia’s (or Aunt Sharron’s) garden then going into the kitchen and acting out that fun scene.

Then there was one of my favourite all time pieces of music, and my Mum’s favourite Doctor Who pieces, I Am The Doctor which, in it’s own right, is amazing. But hearing it played live in front of you by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, in a huge theatre filled with like-minded, Who loving excited fans watching cool clips on BIG screens is one of the best things I’ve experienced! My finger were moving as if I was playing it on the piano by the way…

Following the brilliant I Am The Doctor, we had Amy’s theme….um… Amy. It was a different version than what is available on the season 5 soundtrack, it has more choir in it and it’s played even more to break the heart, which was amazing! I would love a copy of it! They’ve used it on the show much more than the other versions now.

After that we had two Suites (although only one had the word Suite in the title) A Stitch In Time and the Almost People Suite. A Stitch In Time included music from The Impossible Astronaut, The Curse Of The Black Spot, The Doctor’s Wife, and The Wedding Of River Song.

Then there was an interval.

Then when we went back in, The Daleks had taken over and made Ben Foster – their slave composer conduct – conduct Battle In The Skies from Victory Of The Daleks.

After that we had another of my all time favourites The Majestic Tale Of A Madman With A Box, which was truly incredible to hear live, one of the best parts of the day!

After that we had another piece from a collection of episodes from season 5, Liz ,Lizards, Vampires And Vincent, which they put together at the Proms and it works really well. It as pieces from The Beast Below, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood, Vampires In Venice, and then Vincent And The Doctor. It was a bit like smaller version of the journey that the entire Symphonic Spectacular was.

Following said journey we had a Closing Time Suite. I didn’t notice how much briliant music there was in Closing Time. I’ll have to watch it again to do research. It has some exciting stuff for the encounters with the Cybermen – two of which stood in door either side of the theatre, backlit, with a cloud of smoke coming behind them – a very comic feel for scenes like when Graig was in the underwear section of the store, and then some very touching music when The Doctor told Graig and Stormy about his upcoming death, and when River was put in the Spacesuit.

Then, speaking of Spacesuits, they played The Wedding Of River Song, a very beautiful piece from the episode of the same name. While this was happening someone in an Apollo Spacesuit came on stage and did thing like threaten members of the Orchestra by holding it’s hand up just like when it shot The Doctor.

Then, we experienced what the 2010 Doctor Who Prom goers experienced when the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra played This Is Gallifery, (Our Childhood, Our Home. As they didn’t call it in the programme, but that’s what it’s called on the soundtrack) and Vale Decem, we had all The Doctor’s regenerations to date, on the big screen in front of us! With big cheers for every one of them! Oh, and Tennant fangirls, your screams hurt my ears… only playing with you.

The last piece on the program is the Pandorica Suite, which they also put together for the Proms, it wounded brilliant!

I say the last one of the Programme. Because after the show was meant to end, Murray Gold himself came up on stage to thank us for coming (although we should have thanked him), introduced their encore, The Song Of Freedom. For which he accompanied the Orchestra buy playing piano. As soon as he sat down at the keyboard I start a round of applause (I couldn’t help it!) which sadly wasn’t continued towards the end of the piece – which happened at Proms – so we didn’t clap along, I tried to get people to though, I did!

And last, but not least, we had the theme tune, with bit of every opening sequence played on the screens.

So to sum up, hearing the music I listen to almost everyday, played live by a wonderful Orchestra, conducted by the man who does it for the soundtrack, and played by the man who, now, I’ve been told not to have heroes, but the man whose music for the show that inspires me in so many ways can, and did on Saturday, have me in tears of overwhelming excitement, extreme heartbreak or awe inspiring joy is most definitely a hero! Also, all the hard work Ben puts into it also needs mentioning, both of them are my heroes! Thank you both, if you ever read this!

Oh, and if you’d like the complete list of what was played, here you go:

The Madman With A Box

An Untimely Arrival

I Am The Doctor

Amy

A Stitch In Time

Almost People Suite

Abigail’s Song

The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe Suite

*Insert interval here*

…

(and we’re back)

Battle In The Skies

The Majestic Tale Of A Madman In A Box

Liz, Lizards, Vampires And Vincent

Closing Time Suite

The Wedding Of River Song

This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem

Pandorica Suite

The Song Of freedom

The Doctor Who Theme

So. Here we are, in 2012.

2012 Day 2 (in Australia). I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! Sorry for the lack of posts for a while, I’ve been…busy. I’m actually feeling a bit out of practice with this whole blogging thing, but I hope I can make the first post 2012 a good un!

So, Christmas for us was lovely, for the first time in my life stayed at home and hosted it, which was a change! Then on Boxing Day there was a rather fun episode of Doctor Who, very Christmas-y and a good piece entertainment. Not the best episode, but it was fun. Another bit of Who news is that ABC2 is going to repeat all 6 seasons of New Who, along with the Specials on Mondays to Fridays starting tonight! That will last for quite a while, then we’ll have season 7. The BBC should do the same me thinks. I’m certainly excited about that though. Oh, and if you use iTunes – and the Australian iTunes Store – the Christmas Special and the Prequel is available for $3, not that I’m associated with Apple, I just think it’s a good deal.

Something else I’d recommend are the Doctor Who A Christmas Carol and Season 6 soundtracks, and have a preview:

That’s about it for me first post of 2012,, I hope you enjoyed. Expect some more from me soon.

Shadows at HotHouse Theatre Albury

So, if you’re in or can make it to the Albury area on the 9th or 10th of this month (so next weekend) come and catch me in a play that me and the rest of my class are working on at the HotHouse Theatre, Albury.

Here’s some more for you:

“Inspired by the 1977 Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play, The Shadow Box, this version is re-imagined for a 2011 audience. The work interweaves the lives of three terminally ill patients from three dramatically different walks of life. It tells their stories and those of their loved ones. This is a story about life, and of living it.

Two shows only: Friday 9 & Saturday 10 December.

The 11 members of Masterclass are: Meg Bodsworth, Marni Harris, Kate Chamberlain, Amos Wilksch, Lewis “Snoopy” Stanley, Paige Fitzpatrick-Boyd, Melanie Clark, Rhys Parton, Rebecca Condon, Leslie Leckie and Sean Jones.

These actors, aged between 14 and mid 50’s, meet weekly to train and rehearse with Studio Director Sebastien Pasche.
Shadows
The Butter Factory Theatre, Gateway Island, Village Causeway, Wodonga
Fri 9 & Sat 10 December
7.00pm
$15 all tickets
To buy now, click here
Or phone: 02 6021 7433″

For the past two terms me and the rest of the amazing cast have been working on this, and it has been a journey! Wanna be a part of it? Yeah, OK, that question was cheezy, I know, but come and see us!

Doctor Who season 6 soundtrack tracklists.

So, the traklists has been announced! I am an excited little bunny! The ones I’m most excited about will be in Astrix, but, I know the whole thing is going to be superb!

DISC ONE

The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon

*1.  I Am The Doctor In Utah*

2.  1969

3.  The Impossible Astronaut

*4.  Trust Me*

5.  Help Is On Its Way

6.  Another Perfect Prison

7.  Greystark Hall

8.  Apollo 11

9. Day Of The Moon

*10. I See You Silence*

The Curse of the Black Spot

*11. You’re A Dead Man*

*12. Deadly Siren*

13. Perfect Reflection

14. All For One

*15. The Curse Of The Black Spot*

*The Doctor’s Wife

16. I’ve Got Mail

17. My TARDIS

18. Run, Sexy

19. Locked On*

(Yes ALL of them!)

The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People

*20. The Chemical Castle*

*21. Which One Is The Flesh?*

22. Scanning Me

23. Ransacked

*24. Always With The Rory*

*25. Double Doctor*

*26. Tell Me The Truth*

*27. Loving Isn’t Knowing (The Almost People Suite)*

*A Good Man Goes to War

28. River’s Waltz

29. Pop

30. Tell Me Who You Are

31. Melody Pond*

(Again, all of them)

 

DISC TWO

Let’s Kill Hitler

*1.  Growing Up Fast*

2.  The Blush Of Love

3.  Terror Of The Reich

4.  The British Are Coming

5.  A Very Unusual Melody

*6.  When A River Forms*

*7.  Pay Attention Grown Ups*

*8.  The Enigma Of River Song*

Night Terrors

9.  Bedtime For George

*10. Tick Tock Round The Clock*

11. A Malevolent Estate

*12. Night Terrors*

*The Girl Who Waited

13. Apalapucia

14. 36 Years

15. Lost In The Wrong Stream*

(I say all of them, I’m mainly interested to see- hear which pieces there are. I know most of the pieces are rearrangements of previous themes, but I’d buy that! I want it all!)

The God Complex

*16. The Hotel Prison*

17. Room Of Your Dreams

18. Fear Enough

19. What’s Left To Be Scared Of?

*20. Rita Praises*

(If ‘Rita Praises’ is the one I’m thinking of, it’s quite beautiful!)

Closing Time

21. Stormageddon, Dark Lord Of All

*22. Definitely Going*

23. Over Your Shoulder

24. Ladieswear

*25. Fragrance*

*26. My Time Is Running Out*

The Wedding of River Song

27. Tick Tock (Vocal Track)

*28. 5:02 PM*

29. The Head Of An Enemy

30. My Silence

***31. Brigadier Lethbridge – Stewart***

32. Forgiven

*33. Time Is Moving*

*34. The Wedding Of River Song*

Day of the Moon

*35. The Majestic Tale (Of A Madman In A Box)*

(That last one must be the one that plays when they burn him, and that is the best part/piece of the episode!)

Expect a few more Who music related posts from me. and maybe a couple of sections on the podcast.

The latest offering from The Doctor Who Fan Orchestra

The title may be a bit misleading, it’s actually the latest magnificent offering from The Doctor Who Fan Orchestra! Have a watch:

I have to say this sort of things is what will keep the show alive forever!

My first YouTube video.

The title says it all… here it is:

Our new family member.

So, as the title suggests, we have a new family member. Not a baby, but a lovely Tri Colour Collie.

Our new little girl is the one of the right – the one that didn’t want to stay still and have her picture taken.

She was dropped off at the pound by her original owner (god knows why they would!) and found by the Collie rescue group in Geelong. My theory on why they dropped her off is it’s because their children saw her when she was younger (not that she’s old, she’s 15 or 16 months old), but then she got bigger and they didn’t want her anymore. The parents must’ve thought it was time to move her on. Which is all the better for us.

She’s a gorgeous little girl, but not trained much, she’s very willing to learn though. She chases the cat and she wants to go after the chickens, but we can train her on that.

I’ll post updates about every now and again, but for now all that needs to be said I love her.

First audio post for this blog.

This is the first every audio post on the blog.

http://rhysramblings.podomatic.com/swf/joeplayer_v18c.swf

John Williams love!

This may be one of, if not the, shortest post on my blog, but  as the title says, this is a John Williams appreciation post. If you read my blog before you’ll know that film and Tele scores are a big part of my life, and are pretty much all the music I listen to. Well, OK, I guess it’s an understatement saying ‘the music I listen to’, I live off this stuff in a way. Over the years it’s my love for soundtracks have built up, I’ve always had an ‘ear’ for it, whenever I watch TV or a film I always notice the music, subconsciously. It’s probably the first thing that I notice when watching something, it’s like there are two parts of my brain that watch things, one to watch it, work out the plot, notice dialogue, feel excited about what’s happening in the show, and appreciate acting. And one half to notice the music, which instruments are playing, how it works with the scene that’s playing, and how it effects me emotionally.

Now onto the John Williams part of the post. Star Wars has been a part of my life for – Que the cliche – ‘as long as I can remember’. It may be a cliche, but it’s true for me, thinking about it, I can’t remember when I first saw it, but I know I’ve loved it all my life. So with Star Wars being such a big part of my life, and the fact that 1. the films can be silent films and 2. I notice music, the music is equally as huge part of my life. It’s perfection, I mean there are the classic pieces that everyone knows, the theme tune, The Imperial March, and The Force theme. But I think all the music works, and the prequels have a lot of the perfect music. I hope that even non-prequel fans will check out the prequels again 1. because they really are great films in their own rights! And 2. because the music is not only some of the best music in recent cinema, but some of the best music in recent years or decades full stop.

I’ll just leave you with a piece of music which, from my childhood, always moves in someway, be it having goosebumps, a swelling of emotions, or having a tear in my eye, depending of where I am and what I’m doing, I mentioned it before, The Force Theme:

My faith has been restored.

I don’t really know what this blog post will be about, the best way to sum it up is to call it a purging. It may become a review, it may be just be me letting my opinions burst out! So good luck and see you on the other side.

OK, most of you love Doctor Who, so do I, but recently I’ve been feeling pretty down about it. There are quite a few reasons for this, number 1 being Steven Moffat is a good writer but everything is about him! Let’s Kill Hitler was great but it;s not just his writing that makes it good. I can (and have) rant about this, there is SO much that makes an episode, the cast, the music, the directing, the set design, even lighting (I’ve done light and sound for a few plays and there is so much that can be done with lighting, it’s quite amazing!) and editing. I don’t see why, to all fans (not true, I know, but it just seems it), Steven Moffat scripted episodes are the best thing to happen to/in Doctor Who until his next one, it seems to be an instant thing for them! I mean, he’s a fantastic writer, but so if Mark Gatiss, Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell and just about every writer they’ve hired! I’m a very happy Doctor Who fan, I love every episode, there are some that are worse than others, and there are some that are superb! I’m the same with all writers for Who, I love them all and all their work.

But point 2 being I was quite cynical about the Doctor Who team (or maybe the BBC) trying to get more viewers in the US with the opening two parter at the beginning of the year. So I went in there watching the episodes with that cynical eye but THEN we got the whole DWM spoiling the whole ‘shock’ Death Of The Doctor scene in The Impossible Astronaut. I wont go into how I feel about spoilers, or just that event, I’ll just say that I won’t like them at all and I feel exactly the same way as my good internet friend and fellow Who fan and Podcaster, Adam J Purcell – you may not know who he is, if so he’s one of the hosts of the brilliant Staggering Stories podcast, and if you want just how he feels look up Tom Spilsbury’s tweeter feed about the time of the DWM spoilers, you’ll see a ‘Twttier battle’ as we called between the two – and so I had the anger I’d been spoiled and the cynical feeling going into the episodes.

Also, apart from Neil Gaimen’s brilliant The Doctor’s Wife, the very fun, Curse Of The Black Spot and the fantastic  A Good Man Goes To War I was pretty disappointed with the first half of the season. In fact, I was disappointed with having just half a season, and I had that feeling TOO the opening two parter also. But, BUT, with all that horribly/horrible negative stuff said, I was so happy to find that Let’s Kill Hitler was a fantastic episode. This is where the purge begins, quite emotionally too it must be said, IF this had been a bad episode (and that would just be my opinion, of cause) I would’ve been angry! If it hadn’t answered any of the many questions left over from the first half of the season (hear my thoughts on that at: http://whoisthemancast.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/who-is-the-man-pdocast-episode-29)  I would’ve probably treated the next episodes with the same anger I had with the first two episodes, but that hasn’t happened, and wont – or most likely wont – happen.

As the name of the post says, I’ve had my faith restored with this season. I think that in the season break I remembered the disappointment, anger, and frustration I felt about many parts of the first part of the season and it built up to the point where I was kinda worried about this half, but all that’s gone  now! After seeing the superb Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvil and Alex Kingston back in action, heard some wonderful music from Murray Gold, had some some fantastic writing from both Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss I am very enthusiastic about what’s coming up! For those of you who know me online, you’ll know that Matt Smith is an absolute inspiration to me! I know a lot of people say that but I mean it, literally, his acting just helps me with things I’m learning/working on at Drama School, I see him do something, maybe a certain style of acting – very subtle, for instance – and I try and find ways to bring that into what I’m doing, it’s amazing! HE’s amazing! Also, Murray Gold too, not for acting – obviously – is an inspiration! If you don’t know about me and my love for Murray and his work, in short he is one of the top three parts of Doctor Who, no, correction, New Who. If you want to know more, read this: http://rhysparton.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/my-thoughts-on-the-music-of-new-doctor-who/. I will say, I don’t like that someone, somewhere down the line feels it’s OK to take some pieces that were specifically composed for specific scenes from last season and just dumping them into a scene this season! Come on Steven you’ve got a genius on your hands, let him make his magic! He does some, outstanding original pieces for this season but come on, Steven!

Alex Kingston was another thing that made me so happy about the episode, she is her gorgeous, extremely flirty, sexy (oh, gorgeous covered that), talented, flirty, wonderful, flirty (I’m noticing a theme) self! I say flirty because Steven Moffat and Alex herself know that she is an extremely sexy woman, and they so went to town to bring that out, with some of the costume and even River/Melody/Mels’/ reaction to her new body. It was probably a bit too far for the time slot, with the revealing clothes, the rather sexy posses but I’m a perverted sixteen year old boy and quite attracted to her so I’m not complaining! She’s got it!

Overall the I am extremely excited for the next episode, The Girl Who Waited, because it’s going to be an Amy episode! Karen is an amazing actress, and stunning! Yes, I am in love (as is Adam Purcell), have been since season 5, and it’s not just in…a…lusting way, it isn’t with Alex either, but anyway, I can say that so far this season they haven’t used her well this season, they’ve pretty much forgotten her really, so much so that, heartbreakingly (given how amazing she is and how in love with her wonderfully gorgeousness I am) that I nearly forgot about her! And that’s horrible! But from what I’ve heard the next episode is going to be a good episode, in it’s own rights, but bcause they’re going to bring back the brilliance of Amy from season 5, so I am very much looking forward to it!

So is you stuck with me through that, thank you for reading and I’ll post soon, probably some more Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston love.

P.S. My love for Karen has been refreshed because I’ve ‘remembered’ her so to speak, and I just wanted to spread her beauty: