> In addition to Danny Elfman's largely successful career as the lead singer and > composer for the band originally titled The Magical Knights of Oingo Boingo > (later shortened to Oingo Boingo, and then briefly before they broke up, > Boingo), and in addition to his more popular film and television scoring > career (which includes Batman, Beetlejuice, Darkman, The Simpsons, Big Top Pee > Wee, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Nightbreed, Tales From The Crypt, Scooged, > Edward Scissorhands, Dolores Claiborne, To Die For, Mission Possible, > Sommersby, Dead Presidents, Amazing Stories, and The Flash, <whew>, Elfman > composed and sung the lead role of Jack Skellington in Tim Burton's The > Nightmare Before Christmas (the spoken part of the role was performed by an > actor whose name escaped me). Truly a contemporary Renaissance dude! > I think that perhaps I might overuse run-on sentences. > > Rob A complex sentence, yes, but not technically a run-on ;-)Rob and Ed Owens and anyone else a fan of Danny Elfman, plus anyone interested in literate writing about film scoring, should check out the March 9 _New Yorker_, pp. 82-86. Their music critic, Alex Ross, discusses the state of Hollywood composing; after dismissing James Horner as "a kleptomaniac who recycles not only others' work but also his own," he surveys the scene from Max Steiner to the present, devoting a whole paragraph to Elfman ("an expert parodist....also capable of richer, darker sonorities") and singling out for special praise Howard Shore (who shares with Elfman a pop/rock music background), composer for _The Game_ and _Seven_. Jim Marsden/Bryant College ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.