Jenn Franklin is an independent singer/songwriter out of Nashville who also happens to be a college buddy of mine.
Jenn is working on a new music video for her song "Ready As I Am", and you can be in it! She says the song is about "taking chances now and forgetting about waiting until all those pesky ducks are in a row. It's about the perfectly amazing things we can do as beautifully imperfect humans." The song also touches on the pressures women face in our society to match up to the photoshopped images we're surrounded with daily.
If you want to be in the video, just send a photo of yourself holding a sign with the message, "I'm ready to ________." Just fill in the blank! Empower yourself and others to be courageous, take chances, love yourself, love your body, etc. Anyone, any age can participate (even your kids)!
I'm forced to write this open letter to all three of the "composers" credited with the film score to the 2009 Warner Bros. movie "The Box". I've never personally seen a film score credited to more than one person, but then I've also never heard a film score containing such blatant plagiarism!
I'm referring to a musical theme that occurs twice in the film, by my count. It's simple, starting with a major triad on a piano. As soon as I heard it, it instantly called to mind another theme that's very dear to my heart. When I heard the second chord and realized it was identical to this beloved piece I was already waiting in anticipation for the third. Sure enough, when the third chord was revealed I was incredulous! All told, I realized the chord progression of the entire 8-measure theme only differed from the one I know and love by a single chord. Just one.
To what pre-existing theme am I referring? "Life and Death" by the GREAT Michael Giacchino, one of the most-used musical themes from The Show Television Was Created For, LOST. This piece has been the background to many a tear shed around the world ever since September 2004. The Box came out in 2009.
I really, really wish I knew which of these credited composers was behind the heist so they could be exposed for the charlatan they are in front of the entire musical community! Perhaps they were all three in on it together?
Regardless of who the perpetrator(s) is/are, I find it difficult to believe that no one sitting in the scoring sessions for that movie - no producer, no musician, no audio engineer - noticed and made comment to the fact that the music was practically identical to a piece from a show that averaged 15.5 million viewers each week! A ridiculously stupid and obvious theft if ever there was one. Emphasis on stupid. I mean, how reckless do you have to be to steal one of the most beloved musical themes from one of the most beloved television shows of all time? Stupid.
Shame on whichever of these composers perpetrated this crime. Shame on the cooperating composers for not calling them on it. Shame on the producers of The Box. Shame on Warner Bros for releasing the movie with stolen music.
The Box was a surprisingly great movie. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It was existential and promoted altruism, the reality of the spirit, noetics, and putting the good of All before the good of Self.
Too bad the composers couldn't do the same.
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Perhaps in many cases this is true. However, this is not imitation. This is plagiarism. This is theft. It's blatant. It's dishonest. It's ugly.
Win Butler, his wife Régine Chassagne and Owen Pallett owe a public apology to Michael Giacchino. Furthermore, they owe Michael Giacchino money. They should be forced to give him every red cent they received for the score to that movie!
Well, maybe not all of it. We should probably save some for whatever other composers had their material so flatteringly imitated!
For your benefit, if you haven't treated yourself to the masterfully simple "Life and Death" by Michael Giacchino, I've embedded a YouTube video I found containing the piece. I would have provided a clip from The Box for you to compare the two, but I was unable to locate one.
