In the past year i've made several new friends and awesome connections thru this board, as well as expanding my knowledge of Stewart ephemera.
But I've also latched on to a huge amount of the main man's work this year. First off, all the spyro soundtracks. The range of music on them is surprisingly varied, and most of it well within Stew's established repertoire, which sits quite well with me. Some very danceable stuff here also. Easily the equivalent of seven albums' worth of material, I'm still sorting thru my favorites!
The Police Live at Gateshead.. I was clued in to its existence thru discussions here on the board, and found it on amazon. Funny, i [i]still[/i] don't have the Synchronicity video, but this is warming its spot nicely. It was great to hear how they sounded with a horns section live. Although the cinematography short shrifts Stewart terribly, though.
Orchestralli - Wow, Stewart, you should be doing one of these cd/dvd combos every year, they could alternate focus on different aspects of your stuff: Taranta one year, Gizmo the next. It's fantastic to have a live performance of The Equalizer. The playing is excellent, I really love Ensemble Bash. As always, the interview bits were highly entertaining and appreciated.
Everyone Stares - the fruition of your years of filming the Police finally sees light thru the miracle of technology. Congratulations on its success, as well as expanding even futher the breadth of your artistic expression.
Holy Blood and Crescent Moon - a masterpiece! I didn't know how i would react to your opera, but it was not so foreign to someone already well-immersed in your soundtracks. Quite the contrary, it was a treat to hear still more varied treatments on works from the landmark Equalizer album. I was surprised to discover it was in English, but appreciated its increased accessibility.
I also got loads of Police rarities from everyone's favorite Dietmar, who helped me polish off my search for all the studio versions of their songs.
I [i]almost[/i] got conroy's remix of spyro 2 material. I'm actually still hoping to download it thru a friend's hi-speed connection.
Still trying to track down a live Rhythmatist show and some JTTOU goodness.
Thanks to sockii, Divmistress, Chad, Dietmar, conroy, spyroseductress, gav, and anyone else i've corresponded/traded with in the past year or so. Here's to a bright and bountiful 2007!