The film historian David Thomson has heard Alloy Orchestra accompany silent films on several occasions. The most recent was at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, for “Metropolis.”
Fritz Lang’s classic was the first score the Alloys did. That was 23 years ago. They’ve since done nearly two dozen other features — epics and slapstick and even documentaries — and numerous shorts.
“Metropolis” remains their “bread and butter,” said percussionist-accordionist Terry Donahue, 51, in a joint interview earlier this month at the East Cambridge-based trio’s rehearsal space. The other members are percussionist-clarinetist Ken Winokur, 58, and keyboardist Roger C. Miller, 59, who when not Alloying is guitarist of Mission of Burma. Winokur estimates they’ve performed the “Metropolis” score 400 to 500 times.
Thomson, recalling that San Francisco performance, wrote in an e-mail, “The film had never been as crazy or compelling, and a lot of that was due to the live music by and from the Alloy Orchestra. It was so exciting I think Lang’s monocle would have popped out.”
Stripped to their barest of bones, the plots of many of Alfred Hitchcock's films are about an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary situations. While a Jedi Padawan is hardly an ordinary person, Ahsoka Tano is the closest thing The Clone Wars has to that sort of a character type. Across one movie and five seasons, the show's intended audience has grown up with her, watched her become a confident Jedi, and has come to relate to her. In the same way that Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart's were sophisticated movie actors who were still believable as regular people in Hitchcock's films, Ahsoka's image is one of both a competent Jedi and the audience surrogate in the narrative.
In "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much," Ahsoka found herself in a Hitchcockian situation of being set up for the murder of Letta, the woman who fed her husband the explosive nano-bots that blew up the Jedi Temple hangar last week. Since clones were killed in the explosion, Palpatine decreed that it was a military issue, not a Jedi one, and placed Tarkin in charge of the matter. The change in jurisdictional control was likely a three-pronged decision: The first, as Tarkin explained, is that Palpatine is seeking to further remove the Jedi from military matters, because they are peacekeepers, not warriors. The second, and this is me theorizing, is that Palpatine's looking for another way to discredit the Jedi, and the murder of bombing suspect by a Jedi would certainly fit into that mold. I'll get to that third prong in just a moment.
Compared to Grant and Stewart's characters, though, Ahsoka is at a disadvantage, one that those older characters never really had to worry about. The conventions of classic Hollywood cinema being what they were, the fate of the protagonist was never really in doubt. He would break up the spy ring, clear his name, and get the girl (provided he didn't already have her). So while he'd be in danger, and it would be thrilling and suspenseful, the outcome was always a sure thing.
But ever since she made her debut, Ahsoka's fate has never been a sure thing. Does she die? Does she turn to the dark side? Does she simply go into exile at some point? This arc seems primed to test the possibilities of what could happen to Ahsoka now that she's on the run from the Jedi Council and the military in an effort to clear her name. Certainly the evidence is stacked against her, from her rant about Letta's guilt and desire for revenge in front of Anakin, Tarkin, and Barriss to the holocam footage that made it look like she was Force-choking Letta to all the dead or injured clones in the prison. Like any good Hitchcockian hero, Ahsoka will likely end up traveling long distances and making unlikely alliances in an effort to acquit herself. But unlike those heroes, it's tough to know how exactly how it will all end.
And there's still the matter of the third prong. This one, like the second, is just a theory, but here goes: Given Palpatine's careful orchestration of everything so far, I would not be at all surprised if he's had this in the works for some time, and considers Ahsoka's fall from favor within the Jedi Order—whether by discreditation, turning to the dark side, or getting trapped in a web of convincing evidence—as another step in his plan to turn Anakin against the Order. Losing an apprentice you knew to be innocent would be one thing, but to have the very institution you serve doubt that innocence? Anakin would not be pleased with that at all.
But Brookings is home to Brookings-Harbor High School’s Bruins, making the statues “a good fit,” Vierra said.
And members of the Brookings Public Art Committee were elated to learn the bears could come back to town — this time for good.
City officials here have been pondering how to get some of the bears, be it by another “visit,” purchase, or even buying the mold used to cast them. Evergreen no longer uses a mold; it’s cost prohibitive.
Instead, volunteers carve each likeness out of styrofoam and cover it in fiberglass before it is painted. Since it’s all volunteer work, Vierra has no idea how much it costs to make a bear today.
“We learned some difficult lessons,” she said. “How you make them, how you keep them from cracking in the weather. It’s an undertaking. We’d love to share them instead of seeing people try to duplicate them. It’s not easy.”
“It depends on what everybody wants,” said committee member Lea Ray. “We could feature them in certain things that are going on. Or they can go from each park to each event. They could be in parades – parade bears; how cool is that! I love it. They’re just adorable, and they’re perfect for us.”
Other ideas could involve using them in fundraising events or just allowing the bears to be integral pieces of public art. All that needs to be discussed, Vierra said.
“We’re really happy Brookings enjoys the bears,” she said. “That’s what’s great about Brookings. It’s a really tight community; the bears would be good there.”
The city council heard occasional mentions of the bears since they left, but it wasn’t until Kelly McClain was appointed to council and suggested – repeatedly – that the city pursue bringing the ursine beasts back to town. He believes it would be a big plus for tourism.
“Anything that makes the town look better, I’m all for,” McClain said. “It makes you remember the town — ‘Oh, Brookings! It’s the town with the bears!’ We have all these people driving through town every year, it gives them a reason to stop, to come back, to stay awhile. We get all this free traffic; all we have to do is captivate them.”
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