Thundercats Tuesday - TC 124 -126, Ma-Mutt's Confusion, Shadowmaster, and Swan Song.

This week's Thundercats Tuesday, features TC# 124 - 126, and includes a personal milestone and highlight of mine.  TC # 125, Shadowmaster was my first scriptwriting assignment.  Plus, I got to design the new characters for the episode, including, of course the Shadowmaster character.  My original plot outline for the story was totally overwritten.  (I'll touch on that, later in this post)  Only the  smart editing of the talented Peter Lawrence, story editor, saved me from embarrassing myself.  I'm eternally indebted to producer, Lee Dannacher, and Peter for giving me the chance to write for the Thundercats.

Let's start with TC# 124 - "Ma-Mutt's Confusion.

The Babylonian Barbarian Boiler is my all time favorite Thundercat prop design.  The scene of Mum-Ra running back and forth with the bucket reminds me of the famous Disney's Sorcerer's Apprentice scene from Fantasia.

 TC # 125 - "Shadowmaster"

 The original plot for the Shadowmaster had enough story elements for three shows.  I introduced a parallel group of Thundercats-like heroes, in the ShadowRealm, called LightLancers.  The LightLancers were defeated,  and disbanded by the Shadowmaster, and their world plunged into darkness.  The lone dispirited LightLancer at first challenged Lion-O, but Lion-O enlisted him to defeat the Shadowmaster.  In doing so, The Lion-O helped the LightLancer regain his power to regroup his companions and restore the land.  This sub-plot was in addition to the main Claudus storyline.  So, yeah, there was no way this could fit in a 1/2 hour show.  Thanks goodness for Peter's editing.

 Brute the Shadow beast was an example of over designing a character.   The multiple heads was a little much for the time the Beast was on the screen.  I'm happy the animation team give it a shot.

 I always wondered if many Thundercats fans caught my homage to Star Wars with the final scene of the episode with Claudus and Jaga, just like the Darth Vader and Obi Wan shot at end of The Return of the Jedi.

TC # 128- "Swan Song"

Swan Song saw the return of Two-Time, the two-head robot, and his flying ship Domedown.

Only four more episodes to go.  But find some extra item to keep Thundercats Tuesdays going.  Enjoy.

Sunday Music Muse Day - Esperanza Spalding, Al DiMeola, Bill Evans, and Bad Plus.

Another Sunday Music Muse Day has arrived.  This week's selections finds a nice mix of old favorites and some catching to the buzz, sort to speak  That is the case with finally picking up Esperanza Spalding - Chamber Music Society, a Grammy winning CD by a Grammy winning artist (but to be honest, I rarely pay attention to the Grammy Awards, since so much of my favorite music never would make the list).  She definitely a amazing musician and earns, and deserves, all the praise and accolades she gets. Plus, the fact that her beating out Justin Bieber for 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist is just icing on the cake.

Next up is a old favorite fusion guitarist, Al DiMeola.   Flesh on Flesh continues Al's jazz fusion exploration of Mediterranean, Latin and Middle Eastern music.  I admit, in contrast to the taste pictures of Esperanza Spadling's on her CD, the reclining nude on Al's CD cover seems a little embarrassing.  Just enjoy the CD for the music.

There is nothing embarrassing about the next selection, the great pianist Bill Evans, the Everybody Digs Bill Evans CD.  Although the liner notes on the back of CD says Bill Evans was embarrassed by the four endorsement on the cover by Miles Davis, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal and Julian Cannonball Adderley, only goes to show how humble he was.  No jazz lover's collection complete with lots of Bill Evans' music. I'm so happy to add stunning this trio set, featuring Sam Jones on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums, to the others I have.

My last selection is The Bad Plus - Give.  This interesting jazz trio makes music that keep the listener on their toes combining elements of modern avant-garde jazz with rock and pop influences.  For example, they cover Ozzy Osbourne's Black Sabbath tune "Iron man".  Check it out below.  I was first introduced to their music on my local jazz station, Jazz 90.1.  I find their music adventurous and complex, and the more you listen, the more levels of enjoyment you discover.  I've pick up some of their tunes in itunes, before, so it's nice to pick up full CD.

Thanks for dropping by.  Enjoy.