Cinecast Mailbag (7/12)

Some quick dips into the Mailbag...

* Agree to Disagree: "Though I don't always agree with your reviews..." is a phrase we see with some regularity in listener emails. And that's great. In fact, we EXPECT you not to agree with us a good portion of the time. In all of the feedback we've received so far, only one person was so bothered by a review that he vowed not to continue listening to the show. He thought "Batman Begins" -- a film Sam and I both recommended, I'll remind you -- was so amazing it was impervious to ANY criticism. How boring (and, frankly, self-centered) to only read or listen to people who are going to validate your thoughts. Sam and I aren't judging a movie based on whether we think "audiences" will like it or not. All we can do is try to articulate our reaction, and if we give you something new to chew on or a different perspective to consider, then we've done our job.

* So Much For Originality: Jeff Powell from Guelph, Ontario wrote in to let us know "that a Canadian radio show, Definitely Not the Opera(http://www.cbc.ca/dnto/), has been using the Google translator in a contest for a year now (maybe two?). As far as I know, they were the first to do this so they deserve some credit." And here we thought we were being clever. Sam and I haven't decided whether we'll continue doing Google Translator Massacre Theatre or not. It definitely has trimmed down the number of correct entries so far -- not that we were hoping to accomplish that -- but that could also be due to the number of people who haven't been able to get Cinecast #21 yet through iTunes...

To Break Or Not To Break: In an otherwise positive email, Toby in Costa Rica asks, "Why do you take a break? And why do you play stupid music during the break? If anything, you should be true to the show and play cinema music from some of the greats like Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rosza, Jerry Goldsmith and others." Grant Mordecai in Austin, Texas has a different view: "Obviously your insightful movie reviews are the main reason to tune into the casts each week, but I also really appreciate that you are turning your listeners on to new and interesting music as well. I feel that having a short pause in the discussion and listening to a quick shot of great music really rounds the show out and makes the show seem polished and professional. Keep up the great work!"

As Grant said, Sam and I believe that a shot of music makes the show seem "polished and professional," but our real motivation lies in his comment about "having a short pause in the discussion." We think it is better for us AND our listeners to break up the monotony of two people talking for 40-plus minutes. Plus, it gives us a chance to quickly collect our thoughts and discuss how to approach the next segment.

Why not play movie soundtracks and scores? We'd love to! In a perfect world, each break would feature a song from a movie that tied in to our Top 5 theme for that week. But due to copyright restrictions, we can't just play whatever we want. We need permission from the record labels/artists to play their music, and we approached Messenger Records and Bloodshot Records specifically because we are big fans of many of their artists, including Dan Bern on Messenger and Kelly Hogan on Bloodshot. If we can convert a few of you into fans as well... what's the harm in that?

Adam