Next month, the San Diego Symphony will put on a live–to-picture performance of Galaxy Quest, the classic sci-fi comedy from 1999 starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell and Tony Shaloub. What’s that you ask? Why would a symphony play the music to a comedy? Well, two reasons: One, it’s really great music to a really fun film. Two, it’s really great music written by David Newman. These days, orchestras know they have to inclusive – they can’t be exclusive – and there’s no benefit to being closed-minded. Orchestras used to just play the same canonical works, but now they have really embraced the popularity and the artistry…
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Off the Shelf…'Galaxy Quest'
This past weekend I was watching Star Trek on Blu-Ray (which is jaw-dropping btw). While I just love that movie I couldn’t help but think, more than a few times, of how spot on the Galaxy Quest spoof was to the entire Star Trek franchise. After the movie ended, and I swore that I was a confirmed ‘neo’Trekkie’ I put Galaxy Quest in for a spin and laughed my ass off. For starters, this was no spoof in the vein of Airplane! or even those abysmal “Scary”, “Date”, “Disaster” Movies that studios term as spoof either. Not this was almost an outright homage sprinkled with witty humor and fine acting. I have…