Saturday, December 12, 2009

JASNA DC Meeting and New Emma Soundtrack

I just got back from my first local JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) meeting, which was nice. It's good to meet other Janeites and enthusiasts. I had the pleasure of being able to assist them with making the speaker's DVD projection work, despite requiring a trip to Best Buy for additional audio cables. Folks, just be aware, Clyde's of Tyson's Corner does not carry the right equipment for you to show a video with their supplied projector. That not withstanding, the event was nice, the food was good too. In short I've had an interesting day! :D

Today's talk was about self-respect and the role of laughter in improving the people in Austen's novels. It was by Dr. Lorraine (Lorrie) Clark Ph.D. from Canada, and as you might imagine, contained a good deal of things going back to the ancient Greeks and much technical terminology. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I can say I entirely agreed with the perspective of the speaker, although she really was a very nice person to meet and work with today. I must sadly confess, her talk also reminded me of why I was never a lit major in college... I'm still trying to figure out how she tied in the apocryphal archery scenes from two of the films into Austen's actual works... :P

And sadly, I was too busy to take any pictures... I suppose I'll have to wait and see if any float around...

I should also mention, I now have a ticket to go see The Young Victoria next week, compliments of JASNA, so hopefully that will be good too. I'll blog about that after I see it.


For those who have been following the new 2009 BBC production of Emma, you are undoubtably aware it will come on US television in February, as well as on DVD. (I'm thinking of pre-ordering a copy off of Amazon) What I want to mention however, is for those of us who like movie soundtracks... they have already released the music! I was somewhat surprised, as the last couple period pieces the BBC have made did not have soundtracks available for public purchase... the common thread seems to be that Martin Phipps composed most of those scores. Alas, it is such a pity, as some of his music is simply amazing. But, I have lost my thought here... please visit Austenblog to see where you can download the new Emma soundtrack. It is absolutely gorgeous! I used the 320kbps link, which is the same price as iTunes, but higher quality. http://austenblog.com/2009/12/09/emma-2009-soundtrack-information/


3 comments:

  1. I had no idea that they released soundtracks for any of the BBC dramas, and certainly not for this newest Emma. I loved the music in it and have been trying to get my sister to figure out the notes and play it! Now if only they would release the music for Bleak House or Little Dorrit...

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  2. mmm... BBC has amazing music! Some of it is released (e.g. Emma 2009, Pride and Prejudice 1995, Miss Austen Regrets, etc.), and much of it is not. In some cases there are leaks on the internet where people have posted or cleaned up recordings (from the DVDs) that haven't been released. I wish they would release them all so I could buy the whole thing and have such lovely listening! :D

    I think it would be nice to have an official release of Sense and Sensibility (2008), Wives and Daughters, and North & South... :D

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  3. From your whole blog the thing which attracted me was the ticket of Young Victoria! Oh man you are so lucky to get its ticket for free!

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