Music clips

Time for some more music clips:

Schubert, "Mille Cherubini in Coro." Schubert's cradle song translated into Italian, sung her by the one and only Luciano Pavarotti!

Liszt, third Liebestraum.  This is the famous one, a song about how you should love as long as you can because someday you'll be burying your sweetheart.  Margaret Price is the singer, James Lockhart the pianist.

Verdi, "O Patria Mia" from Aida.  One of my favorite arias from one of my favorite operas.  This is Leontyne Price in one of her greatest roles, in her last Met performance in 1985.

Wagner, finale from Das Rheingold.  The finale from Wagner's first Niebelung opera, where the gods enter their new castle of Valhalla, a mansion paid for with gold stolen from the Rhine maidens, who can be heard briefly. Wagner's music is a bit overwhelming, of course, but it can be remarkably pretty! (This is a 1958 recording directing by Georg Solti.)

Jacques Offenbach, Olympia's Aria from Tales of Hoffmann.  One of my favorite arias from another one of my favorite operas, sung here by Natalie Dessay. (I wish I could find out what production this is.  You don't see sights like those doll puppets every day!)

Edward Elgar, fourth Pomp and Circumstance March. This isn't the famous first one, but a nice one I first heard at Charles and Diana's 1981 wedding.

George Gershwin, Three Preludes for Piano.  One of Gershwin's classical-style compositions, but no less jazzy.  Played by Kristian Zimerman.

Franz Waxman, "Ireland" from The Spirit of St. Louis.  Billy Wilder's 1957 movie of Charles Lindbergh's flight is underrated, even if Jimmy Stewart was a bit too old. Waxman came up with a masterful score, here suggesting the anticipation that came with nearing the flight's completion. (Now I want to see the movie again.)

Loudon Wainwright III, "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road." Wainwright's biggest hit.  What can I say--it's always made me laugh!

Dickie Goodman, "Mr. Jaws." Novelty single from 1975.

The Clash, "Revolution Rock" from London Calling.  Left-wing new age band at their 1979 peak!

Gee, I posted eleven clips this time instead of ten!  Hope you won't expect me to do that every time...

The peaceable kingdom

"Do you have guns?  Any weapons?" "The best!  But we won't need them." "Glad to hear it.  I'm taking one anyway"--Planet of the Apes

Mother (on the design of their mansion): "We based it on Versailles' Hall of Mirrors." Daughter (whispering): "And Donald Trump's bathroom!"--Crazy Rich Asians

Sunday I saw Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes (for the third time) at the Event Screen with the Movie Meetup group.  Written by Rod Serling, it's like a long episode of his The Twilight Zone:  Serling had a genius for sneaking social comment into the "weird tales" genre. (Cleverly, it works on multiple levels.) Charlton Heston's blowhard tendencies are surprisingly suitable here. Afterward we hung out at the Imperial Pub, where I had chili.

Then I went to Dora Keogh for the Reading Out Loud Meetup.  The topic was Canadian writing, and I titled the event "The Peaceable Kingdom."  I read "Death of a Centenarian" from Mazo de la Roche's second Jalna book and Bliss Carman's poem "A Vagabond Song." A group of Celtic musicians started jamming after a while, but we were in a separate room.

Wednesday I had lunch with Pam at the Schnitzel Hub.

I've finished A Very Short History of Babylon and started reading the Discovery issue of Lapham's Quarterly.

Father got a tooth pulled and he'll have to stay off hard food for a day or two.

Today I saw Crazy Rich Asians with Puitak and Gordon at the Yonge & Dundas. Someone said it was an Asian story Americanized, yet you could also say it was an American story Asianized! Conventional but enjoyable, with a good role for Awkwafina as Her Wisecracking Girlfriend. (Wait till the Kardashians see that Singapore has rich people tackier than them!) Afterward we went to Kimchi Korea House, where I had chicken bibimbap.

Trailer clips

Just to be different, I thought I'd post some movie trailers I found on Youtube. (None of them spoil the big plot twists, like today's trailers tend to do.)

Blood and Black Lace.  The trailer for Mario Bava's 1964 Italian slasher movie scared me when I was little. (So did trailers for westerns.)

Vengeance! You haven't lived till you've seen a trailer for a 1970 Shaw Brothers chopsocky from Hong Kong. (The music at the beginning comes from the classic western The Big Country.)

Alien.  A classic spooky trailer for Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi thriller.

Airplane!  An hilarious trailer for the relentless 1980 disaster-movie spoof.

Heaven's Gate. I remember seeing this trailer for Michael Cimino's notorious 1980 western megaflop, and it does look rather promising.  BTW, the whole movie actually isn't that bad:  the dialogue is terrible ("I'm a victim of my class, James") but some of the crowd scenes are amazing!  It might have made a great silent movie.

Johnny Dangerously.  An offbeat trailer for Amy Heckerling's 1984 gangster-movie spoof.  Never saw it, but I recall it has the Weird Al Yankovic song "This is the Life," with the line "If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it!"

Problem Child.  I heard this 1990 comedy hit was tasteless, but Premiere magazine loved the trailer!

When the Cat's Away.  They used the French trailer for this 1996 French comedy in its American release too. (Most people wouldn't translate "Merde!" as "Damn!") Alas, I'm told that the movie itself wasn't half as funny as what we see here.

The Muse.  Albert Brooks presents his 1999 comedy in a very offbeat trailer!

Couples Retreat.  This 2009 comedy seems to be another case where the trailer was funnier than the movie...

HEART OF DARKNESS

"I have wrestled with death.  It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.  It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary.  If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be"--Heart of Darkness

Mother Superior to aspiring nuns: "Remember, you can very easily cheat us, your sisters, but you can never cheat yourself, or God"--The Nun's Story

I just finished reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for the Classic Book Club.  It has an inchoate, existential greatness.  (On the first page of the second chapter I noticed a quotation within a quotation within a quotation!)

Wednesday night I screened Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story with the History Discussion Group.  It's an emotionally powerful character study, with Audrey Hepburn at her best. (Part of it takes place in the Congo, which made it a good match for our earlier discussion.) Moira thought it picked up when the Mother Superior told her to fail her exam!  I liked the moment when she promised her father she'd make him proud but he said, "I don't want to be proud of you, I want you to be happy." I could imagine my own father saying something like that.

Last night I joined the Movie Meetup group to see a special screening of the famous Elvis '68 TV special. (It was the 41st anniversary of his death, which I remember hearing of on the radio.) I'd seen it several times before, but it's still great fun. Too bad about Elvis in the '60s:  instead of making all those stupid movies he should have been on television!

I've started digging up the potatoes.  They're pretty good this year.

Thanks to John Snow for sending me a copy of Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha! (He noticed the earlier post where I said I wanted to read it.)

Music clips

"He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified"--Heart of Darkness

Haven't posted any music clips for a while. (The summer makes me lazy, of course.)

Faure, Berceuse from The Dolly Suite.  I'm familiar with this piece because they used to play it at the end of the classical music show on CBC's FM radio, just before the news!

Lili Boulanger, "Pour les Funerailles d'un Soldat." Based on Alfred de Musset's poem "A Soldier's Funeral," this piece was first composed in 1912, on the eve of the Great War. (Lili Boulanger herself died in 1918 at just twenty-five!) You won't forget this.

Irving Berlin, "What'll I do?" A small gem by one of the great American songwriters, here arranged by Nelson Riddle and sung by William Atherton, with the opening credits of the underwhelming 1974 movie of The Great Gatsby. (But isn't that a great credit sequence?) 

Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters, "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo.)" My father used to like this song!

Johnny Otis, "Willie and the Hand Jive." A rock & roll classic, being performed in Juke Box Rhythm, a 1959 movie from prolific B-movie producer Sam Katzman.

The Beatles, "She's Leaving Home" from Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  A melancholy, underrated song from the Beatle's masterpiece album.

The Police, "Mother" from Synchronicity.  A funny song from the group's 1983 masterpiece album.

Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, "Don't Give Up" from So.  A powerful, haunting duet by two singers in top form. (Elton John says the song helped him get sober!)

Dream Warriors, "Wash Your Face in My Sink" from And Now the Legacy Begins.  I'm not a big fan of rap, but I do like the Canadian group who did this 1991 piece.

Mark Ronson, "Uptown Funk." Here it's accompanied by a video of classic movie dancers! (How many can you name?)

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS

"At certain times, perhaps on long spring evenings, still rainy and sad, with the cold bulbs in bloom and a light too mild for promise drifting over the sea, I have opened the windows and felt the house shrink back into wood and plaster and those humble elements of which it is made, and the life in it subside, leaving me exposed, empty-handed, but feeling a fierce and lawless quiver of freedom, of loneliness too harsh and perfect for me now to bear"--Alice Munro

I refilled my Cipralex prescription last week, but was a few days late, so it affected my dreams for a while.  About a week ago I dreamed of having been in a long, successful, marriage! (Never dreamed like that before.) And the same night, I dreamed of a thriller where a human uncovered a conspiracy by sharks to recruit humans to feed other humans to them. The other night I dreamed of Xenophon's Anabasis and the famous scene where the vanguard reaches the heights from which they can see the sea.

Finally finished the home issue of Lapham's Quarterly today.

We finished the documentary series The Vietnam War.  Very fine.

Today I finally reread the Classics Illustrated version of Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs that I bought some ten years ago, for the first time since childhood. (I approached it like an appointment with the dentist.) I've actually read the book, set in England ca. 1700, which is about the deliberately disfigured boy Gwynplaine--his mouth carved into a permanent "smile"-- who turns out to be the heir to a House of Lords title.  It's one of Hugo's especially symbolic efforts: his companions are the mountebank Ursus (Latin for bear), his pet wolf Homo (Latin for man), and a blind girl called Dea (Latin for goddess).

It was the most disturbing of the Classics Illustrated comics I read when I was young. (Moira was equally traumatized.) I've seen other illustrators' work, and Paul Leni's silent movie that inspired Bob Kane to create Batman's enemy the Joker. But artist Norman Nodel's square, basic approach, lacking in "style," somehow gets to me more than they do!

Bits and pieces

"Whatever the Europeans may actually think of artists, they have killed enough of them off by now to know that they are as real--and as persistent--as rain, snow, taxes, or businessmen"--James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

I was going to see Anne today and waited at her apartment building's reception for almost an hour, but it turns out she thought I was coming tomorrow!  Oh well, I got to catch up a bit on my Lapham's Quarterly reading.

Wednesday night was the History Discussion Group, with the Belgian Empire its subject.  We talked for over two hours, but not much of the discussion was actually about Belgium! (I'm easygoing about those details...)

Today I read the Classics Illustrated comic of Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha.  I really want to read the whole poem!  There's an article in Salon about Native Americans creating Indian superheroes for comics, yet Hiawatha and the Micmac Glooscap are pre-Columbian superheroes in themselves. (I've also read two Robert Louis Stevenson comics: Kidnapped and Treasure Island.)

Ken Burns' The Vietnam War is getting better and better!  It does seem odd that the American planners counted on North Vietnamese morale being broken, but it didn't occur to them that American morale might break sooner. I have a feeling that his writer Geoffrey C. Ward is the real genius in these documentaries...

The age of Aquarius

Saturday afternoon I went to an Astrology Meetup at Withrow Park.  The organizer asked us why we got into it, and while everyone else gave complicated answers, I said: "I'm into astrology because I'm a kook." They were interested in my chart because I was born at the time of the big Aquarian stellium and solar eclipse in 1962 that had some East Indians predicting the end of the world! (Other astrologers called it the start of the Age of Aquarius after 2000 years of the Age of Pisces.)

Sunday afternoon the Classic Book Club discussed Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin.  Our next event will be at Dora Keogh in September to discuss Heart of Darkness.

Today I was at the comics store The Beguiling again, and bought the translated first volume of the manga of Sailor Moon.  I was into the TV anime twenty years ago, the one about a junior high school girl who fights super-villains dressed as a fashion model: miniskirt, opera gloves and go-go boots, along with a tiara she throws as a weapon. (I'm tempted to buy Shigeru Mizuki's manga biography of Hitler, but still haven't got up the nerve!)

We've started watching a library DVD of Ken Burns' Vietnam War documentary.  Fascinating, though it seems disingenuous to say that the United States became involved in the conflict in "good faith." (If the Cold War was seen as lacking "moral complexity," as one interviewee says, that reflects the Washington consensus' intolerance for dissent.)

Last week there was a big clan battle in the Vikings computer game and I kept getting cleaned out because I'd run out of treaty shields and didn't have the gold to buy more. But I've already made a recovery.

The latest Classics Illustrated comic I've read is about Renaissance sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. (They say his memoir has some fibs!)