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PfR73 wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 6:50 pm Kavinsky

Known for the song "Nightcall" used in the opening credits of Drive.

What a shame, I was a fan. All of his music sounds like it came from an synth-pop soundtrack to a really great 80s B-movie. His best track may have been Odd Look with The Weeknd and apparently they were working on another collaboration.

Iga Cembrzyńska, Polish actor (The Saragossa Manuscript), singer, composer, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She ran her own film company, Iga Film.

dadaistnun wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2026 12:38 am Simone Forti

Saw her dance no fewer than four times. Even when the Parkinson’s was setting in, it was incredible

Gregory wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2026 10:34 pm Iga Cembrzyńska, Polish actor (The Saragossa Manuscript), singer, composer, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She ran her own film company, Iga Film.

Well, that's annoying. Mostly for the death, of course, but also because I suspect it's just too late to change a caption in my upcoming Saragossa Manuscript featurette, which I think has already gone through the disc authoring stage.

UPDATE: I checked with Radiance anyway, and the disc has indeed gone to replication. So apologies in advance for the caption saying "1939-", but them's the breaks.

John Ali, 98. Once the #2 man in the Nation of Islam.
Had been very close to Malcolm X, who introduced him to the organization. They came to be bitter enemies, and Ali probably ordered the Malcolm X assassination. While Ali exited NoI in 1970 and lived another 55 years. Reportedly got wealthy from involvement with Muhammad Ali’s career.

All those credits and no mention of Oy Vey! My Son is Gay!!

Justin Hardy, 61, film director and son of Robin Hardy (The Wicker Man): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgwj0wnyydo

Aunt Peg wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2026 7:58 am Justin Hardy, 61, film director and son of Robin Hardy (The Wicker Man): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgwj0wnyydo

Just after the release of his latest film, the documentary Children of the Wicker Man, by Severin in the US too.

Justin Hardy's most notable film is probably his 1994 boarding school set one, A Feast At Midnight, with Robin Hardy playing the Headmaster and which amusingly got Christopher Lee (as "Raptor") to recreate the 'raptor coming into the kitchen' moment of the recently released at the time Jurassic Park, which was quite a fast response to the impact that the Spielberg film had on the cinematic landscape!

William Orbit, electonic music producer and artist who won Grammy for producing Madonna's Ray Of Light album.

Lowry_Sam wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 3:48 pm William Orbit, electonic music producer and artist who won Grammy for producing Madonna's Ray Of Light album.

Also the electronic update of Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, with its Ferry Corsten remix.

Among his (sort of) cinematic contributions:

He remixed two of Prince's singles for the Batman soundtrack, "The Future" and "Electric Chair," though his mixes are still out-of-print and not streaming. The songs themselves kind of show up in the movie, but they're buried in the background. (It was easier to hear them when I caught a 70mm screening at Lincoln Center - the theater really cranked up the sound.)

He also mixed and played keyboards on "The Hands That Built America," U2's mediocre contribution to Gangs of New York, which doesn't show up until the end credits.

He also produced and co-wrote Madonna's great single, "Beautiful Stranger," which barely appears in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

A couple of tracks from his 80’s albums show up in Michael Mann’s Heat to stunning effect

Here's Tony M's/Planet ASE's tribute with All Saints doing Pure Shores (the track from The Beach) and Madonna doing a performance of Frozen.

Frozen of course had its official music video directed by Chris Cunningham. While I also love the first Confessions On A Dancefloor album, that Ray of Light album may stand as Madonna's best overall, with it having a much more serious, spiritual and sensuous tone about it.

My first purchase of William Orbit's production work was his remix of Sting's "If You Love Someone Set Them Free" on the original 1985 12" and which only got its first release in digital format last year on the deluxe edition of Sting's debut. He then remixed several artists, many on the I.R.S. label as that was the label that released his group's albums (Strange Cargo). Much of his work before Madonna goes unrecognized (especially from the 80's) & some uncredited: Stan Ridgway (Wall Of Voodoo), Belinda Carlisle, The Cure, Malcolm McLaren, Gary Numan, Seal, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode. My favorite remix of his was on a promo US 12" of Julian Lennon's Now We're In Heaven that transformed the rock song into a house dance music anthem in 1988 that made it an underground dancefloor hit in US underground & gay clubs as it sounded way a head of its time (and Heaven was the most famous gay club in London at the time, giving the song extra meaning). That sound would form the basis of UK progressive house scene and his formation of Guerrilla records (subdivision of I.R.S in the US) in the late 80s & early 90s that launched the careers of Underworld, Spooky, Leftfield, Billie Ray Martin, Bass-o-matic, Moody Boyz, Felix da Housecat & others. His single Water From A Vine Leaf featured Beth Orton on her first recording. Quite an impressive music production resume before he produced Madonna's Ray Of Light & it's singles.

I only had a few Madonna albums and ultimately sold them when it became clear that she'll always be a singles artist for me. That's nothing to sneeze at - her albums are all loaded with singles or in a few cases intended singles, meaning they're usually 30-60% of the album depending on the era - but I never found them to be consistently enjoyable with a good deal of filler or mediocrities. Also some of her singles have better mixes than the album versions as well.

This is half-remembered, so I don’t recall the precise details. From reading a retrospective first-person account written at the time of one of Ray Of Light’s anniversaries, Orbit prior to working with Madonna had established a name but wasn’t terribly financially solvent. When he first started working with Maddy in his studio, he was afraid she’d be put off by the ramshackle nature of it all. And bits and pieces of the keyboards, sequencers, drum machines etc. kept going on the blink during the recording process.

But Maddy was patient, really working hand-in-hand with Orbit, both of them really believing in the project. I can only assume that since he was co-writer on many of the songs, he got a decent financial windfall along with the artistic side of things. I’ve always really enjoyed the title track’s video, like a happy, pop-inspired version of Koyaanisqatsi. And Beautiful Stranger is a banger, too.

The opener of Ray of Light, "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" may be my favourite of that album.

The Wikipedia page for Orbit jumps from his early life right to 1980, but I was just rereading a book* about Centro Iberico, a derelict school building in Longon turned into an anarchist centre, organising hub and countercultural venue by a Spanish Civil War veteran, and William has some of the most vivid memories of living there. For example:

We did get very friendly with Eduardo [a Spanish musician] and his girlfriend, an opera singer. Eduardo’s bedroom was very nice, a funny-shaped room he’d repurposed from being a classroom—they’d even made their own bunk beds. One time I came back and Eduardo was looking grim and crying. What had happened was one of our musical friends in North London, he had a rabbit called William and his girlfriend wrote a note saying, “William has died!” and it went to Eduardo. He and his girlfriend had gone over to the cottage telling everyone I’d died, then I get back wondering why everyone was so upset and why they were all so happy to see me!

*Born of Struggle, Living in Hope, 2026

Joanna Pettet

Casino Royale and The Group Actress Joanna Pettet Dies at 83

Pettet, friends with Sharon Tate, lunched with the actress earlier on the day she was killed in the Manson murders

Let me use this sad occasion to post a tribute to Joanna Pettet's appearances on Rod Serling's Night Gallery by Ken Anderson (clearly a fan). I love his blog:
https://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/201 ... sodes.html

Violet Hensley, 109. The longevity is incredible, someone from the hills of Arkansas who got married during the Depression and then lived 90 years beyond that. She was also extremely underrecorded (one album) but was welcome on the small screen (The Beverly Hillbillies, The Art Linkletter Show, Captain Kangaroo, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and CBS Evening News).

Sorry to London for the misspelling in my previous post