"Well, the folks at the American Film Institute have done it again. Last night they aired their seventh consecutive annual retrospective of great moments in the history of cinema. The new special was devoted exclusively to songs made popular by movies (including a few that were originally introduced in Broadway musicals, but I digress). Last year, you'll recall, the AFI spotlighted filmdom's greatest heroes and villians. I thank my lucky stars that the powers that determine such things (people in the industry, critics and academics) had the good sense to zero in on 'Over the Rainbow', from 1939's The Wizard of Oz, as the #1 choice. The song¹s appeal, especially in regards to a then 17 year old Judy Garland¹s classic, subtle interpretation, is timeless. Of course, we all know by now that we almost had Shirley Temple as Oz's Dorothy, not Garland, and that 'Over the Rainbow' was barely saved from the cutting room floor, as it was believed to slow down the action of the story. Happily, and I don't want to knock Temple, this is one of those peculiar instances in which everything came together as if by magic. Of course, 'Over the Rainbow' won the Academy Award in 1939, but, in addition to this new AFI tribute, it was also named--in 2001--the greatest song of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts; the music is by Harold Arlen and the lyrics are by E.Y. 'Yip' Harburg. What a privilege for all of us to have this song as part of our collective consciousness.

Following close behind was 'As Time Goes By,' made popular by 1942's Casablanca, although the song actually predates the movie. At #3: 'Singin' in the Rain' as joyously performed by Gene Kelly in the 1952 release of the same name (though, there again, the song dates back to The Hollywood Revue of 1929). Fourth place went to 'Moon River' as heard in Breakfast at Tiffany's. There was little doubt in my mind, which songs would dominate the top of the AFI list, but tyring to predetermine the final outcome was a real mind bender, because each of the top four, and you might as well throw in Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas' (from Holiday Inn) at #5, have had great cultural impact. No doubt, they're all special, but 'Over the Rainbow' is a personal favorite, and always has been, so I'm especially delighted by the outcome.

A recent newspaper article suggested the tunes were selected based on being a song with actual lyrics (which ruled out, among others, the Pink Panther theme, and the haunting tune from Laura [the words by Johnny Mercer were added later, after the film's release]), as well as certain points such as defining a character, advancing the story, and, of course, cultural impact. It's hard not to be impressed by many of the choices, (quite a few Oscar winners) such as 'All that Jazz' (Chicago), 'Seems Like Old Times' (Annie Hall), 'Do Re Mi' (The Sound of Music), 'Buttons and Bows' (The Paleface), ³I¹ve Had the Time of My Life² (Dirty Dancing), ³Come What May² (Moulin Rouge!), ³Put the Blame on Mame² (Gilda), ³I¹m Easy² (Nashville), ³Springtime for Hitler² (The Producers), ³Isn¹t it Romantic² (Love Me Tonight), ³Yankee Doodle Boy² (Yankee Doodle Dandy), ³Summer Nights² (Grease) ³On the Good Ship Lollipop² (Bright Eyes), ³Stayin¹ Alive² (Saturday Night Fever) , ³Jailhouse Rock² (Jailhouse Rock) and even ³Old Time Rock n Roll,² featured prominently in 1983¹s Risky Business, but there were a few muddles. Oh sure, ³Gonna Fly Now, ³ the theme from Rocky, advances the plot , but do the words ³Gonna Fly now² repeated during a bridge in the song really constitue lyrics? That one is iffy to me. I¹m also disappointed that the AFI opted to single out Mary Poppins's ³Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious² (sp? get over it) instead of its Oscar winning ³Chim-Chim-Cheree.² And I¹m sorry, I never had much patience for The Lion King's ³Hakuna Matata,² though I can¹t deny its popularity. Oh, and there had to be something more worthwhile than Marlon Brando warbling ³Luck Be a Lady Tonight² from Guys and Dolls.

Of course, with as many worthy entries are there were, there were bound to be some regrettable omissions, but only a few. I, for instance, would¹ve loved it if George Clooney pantomining the catchy ³I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow² from O Brother, Where Art Thou? (actually sung on the Grammy winning soundtrack by Dan Tyminski) had been included or Lulu purring her way through ³To Sir With Love² (from To Sir With Love). What about Cat Stevens¹s memorable contributions to Harold and Maude, (³If you want to be be me, be me...² and all that), or Tim Curry strutting his considerable stuff in ³Sweet Tranvestite² from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (talk about cultural impact)? Who can believe there wasn¹t any room for the marvellous Betty Hutton and her many catchy musical numbers, including the greatest showbiz anthem of them all, ŒThere¹s No Business Like Show Business² (from Annie Get Your Gun), or Barbra Streisand belting out ³On a Clear Day² (from ³On a Clear Day You Can See Forever). Or what about ³Baby, it¹s Cold Outside² (a 1949 Oscar winner, from Neptune¹s Daughter) My biggest disappointment however, was the omission of any songs from The Music Man, bus most especially ³Trouble,² Robert Preston¹s most defining moment onscreen (and lip-synched--to his own vocal track--to utter perfection). Of course, my own sister was named after ³Tammy² the mega selling hit song from Tammy and the Bachelor, so it would have been lovely for it to have been honored, but alas...

Of course, backing to Straisand, she was well represented, what with ³Evergreen² (her 1976 Oscar winner from the remake of A Star is Born), ³The Way We Were (the Oscar winning title track to her 1973 smash with Robert Redford), as well as ³Don¹t Rain on My Parade² and the sublime ³People² from 1968¹s Funny Girl. Judy Garland was also featured prominently, thanks to not only ³Over the Rainbow² but also ³Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas² & ³The Trolley Song² (both from Meet Me in St. Louis) as well as the torchy, ŒThe Man That Got Away² from the 1954 version of A Star is Born, and the rousing ³Get Happy² from Summer Stock. Liza Minnelli scored with the title tunes from both Cabaret and New York, New York--and good for her (both songs composed by the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb). Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly also popped up more than once. So did Bette Midler and Julie Andrews. The latter¹s The Sound of Music (with songs by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II) was included three times. West Side Story was another movie with multiple mentions, as was Singin¹ in the Rain and a few others. (Of course, limiting each each movie to only spot one the list would¹ve made room for some of the titles mentioned above, but how do you not include both ³Make ŒEm Laugh² and ³Singin¹ in the Rain² or ³The Trolley Song² and ³Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas²?) And of course, Walt Disney¹s animated musicals turned up frequently, with the biggest vote getter being ³When You Wish Upon a Star.² The 1940 Oscar winner, from Pinocchio, placed as high as #7.

Finally, about the telecast itself. A few quibbles. Two songs, ³Puttin¹ on the Ritz² and ³Diamonds Are a Girl¹s Best Friend,² were shown as they appeared in two different movies; Blue Skies and Young Frankenstein for the former, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Moulin Rouge! for the latter. The AFI did not elect, however, for the same treatment in regards to ³Unchained Melody,² which was reintroduced to moviegoers via 1990¹s Ghost (as per The Righteous Brothers¹ 1960¹s cover), but one had to read the fine print to see that the song, a 1955 Oscar nominee, originally appeared in the movie Unchained. Also, why not segue from ³Ol Man River² in the 1930¹s black and white version of Showboat to the 1950¹s technicolor redo? And while it was great to see American Idol¹s Clay Aiken on hand as one of the commentators, it would have been cool if current AI champ Fantasia Barrino had been interviewed in regards to ³Summertime² (from Porgy and Bess), since her performance of that classic song clearly propelled her to the winners¹ circle. FYI to Hugh Jackman, Audrey Hepburn didn¹t sing ³I Could Have Danced All Night² in My Fair Lady. She was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed for Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Natalie Wood in West Side Story. It was almost a very good night for Nixon, as her most famous trio of dub-jobs were highlighted, though nobody acknowledged her contributions to any of the films in question. And what about Dolly Parton? She was given ample credit for the title tune to 9 to 5, but when it came to ³I Will Always Love You² (from 1992¹s The Bodyguard), Whitney Houston got all the credit, even though Dolly wrote the song years and years earlier and had even sung it herself in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (in which she made contributions to the original Broadway score). What a way to make a living, indeed.

Any comments, questions, other feedback???

Thanks for your consideration,
Mp

PS and, of course, the Beatles singing "Get Back" on the rooftop of the Apple building at the conclusion of Let it Be does nothing to advance the plot, after all, it's a documentary, but, boy, what a pivotal moment in pop-culture history"

"We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation." --Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves (2003)

Nemesis appears in a poem.

Keep track of the real score. (via Tom Tomorrow)

Retro Future. (via Metafilter)

Bride of Chucky Ecards.

Ghazal Page.

I bought a painting for Melanie at a vintage clothing store; it was a delightful cubist-impressionist cityscape, redolent of "Populuxe" living rooms & doctors' offices, & it only cost thirty dollars. After we got it up, i thought to google the artist, one "Viktor Schreckengost". Not only did he turn out to be a well-known industrial designer of midcentury, whose credits include the "Mercury" bicycle, "Americana" dinnerware, & the cab-over arrangement that big flat-front truck cabs all use now--there was an almost identical painting (watercolor like ours, but orange instead of blue & green) on a gallery site for $7000.

"...yer got yer one great invention, remember Holmes? The neuter personal pronoun; ve/ ver/ vis, I am not his, vis/ ve/ ver, nor am I for her, ver/ vis/ ve, a pronoun for me..." --The Bone People

Giovanni Ribisi as Salam Pax.

Listening to: Loretta Lynn- Van Lear Rose.

A society of gamesters, like ours, except that instead of letting everything in their lives be decided by competition, it's decided by chance: a roll of the dice. Would that society be any more unjust than ours?

" 'I can't see that,' nodding back towards the hidden well, 'ever waking now. The whole order of the world would have to change, all of humanity, and I can't see that happening, e pou [affectionate term of respect for an old person], not ever.'
   'Eternity is a long time,' says the kaumatua [elder comfortably. 'Everything changes, even that which supposes itself to be unalterable. All we can do is look after the precious matters which are our heritage, and wait, and hope.' " --Keri Hulme, The Bone People

Once again the natural foods store where i do most of my shopping, has discontinued one of my staple items. This must be the dozenth time. I know that modern hyper-capitalism tends to punish loyal consumers & reward the "fickletons" (those who switch to the new as soon as it appears), but you'd think a place with a semi-sustainable philosophy would be above such considerations. But i see this in a wider context, as a part of the dominance of one kind of perception over another, that (whether or not consciously) competition & economic stress are used to justify favoring. It's like radio stations that only play one kind of music--the "format"--instead of (as in the old days) having DJ's who pick out their own choice of perceived good music. It's class over the separate individual. And under the mercy of a democratic "market", the unpopular is phased out, whether or not it may actually have been better than the more popular ones. And people think there's no point in fighting that iron hand. Imagine, though, that this were a Commons--an ecosystem--in which variety itself is seen as a benefit. We might even put up with a slightly less efficient economy, just to hang on to things we care about for themselves. Yeah, think of that.

Among the Meek so endangered, find poets & poems.

A new constrained-writing webpage. (via Language Hat)

Spin this, motherfucker.

The Final Frontier. (via Doc Searls)

Pray for Reason. (via Neal Pollack) (But don't dispense with your voodoo dolls, either.)

Now that it's starting to appear that the Revolution will be Televized after all--i miss Umbrism.

As in lying shorn on this chained field.

Looks like i'm going to be working for the rival bookstore starting Monday. I told someone it's like, in Cold War imagery, a top Soviet scientist was defecting to the West--or vice versa. But really, i'm just glad i landed something quick before they packed me off to credit-card debtors' prison.

It was like crossing a swaying rope bridge, more frightening than dangerous, that disappeared into fog; & then it turned out not to be so long, after all (i've been unemployed for years at a time). This time, however, i felt like i was being followed (like so many people in the world--& whole nations--) by a whirling toothed machine advancing at an inexorable rate, ready to chew me in shreds should i falter or pause to rest. And i think what the world needs right now, almost more than love, almost more than peace--is debt amnesty. (Students of history will know that such a thing, far from being the physical impossibility we believe, has occurred repeatedly under the pressure of social change & economic catastrophe.)

But of course, that's crazy talk! You can't say that!

Thoughts on a beautiful morning, from the branch library at opening time, not without bitterness.

I like what the Roches' compilation album liner-notes say about their famous a cappella rendition of the chorus from Handel's "Messiah": "Why did the dog lick his balls? Because he could."

"One problem with this referendum is that the case against George Bush is much too strong." (via Hightower)

   the delicate wake
of two ducks swimming closely
   in the cool morning

olive waterway, pale sky
i on the bridge, hurrying

06 17 04

Online serial SAT-vocab novel. (via Caterina)

"He started picking up debris off the beach, and randomly at first, and then with a steady and abnormal concentration, he had built a spiralling construction of marramgrass and shells and driftchips and seaweed.
'What are you doing?'
He whistled and pointed to it.
It whistles?
He lay down on the sand with his ear by it, and she went to him, puzzled. Simon got up quickly. Listen too, he said, touching his ear and pointing to her. So she did, and heard nothing. Listened very intently, and was suddenly aware that the pulse of her blood and the surge of the surf and the thin rustle of wind round the beaches were combining to make something like music.

She adds, 'They only make music when someone's listening. They're focusing points more than anything...' " --Keri Hulme, The Bone People (1984)
Poems.

The Other Exile-Myth. An interpretation of the Sixties: All Hell Broke Loose. And things have never been the same since. Which is not untrue. But so have the people who came after, grown into changed beings. Only, so to speak, the dismay of the elders who were there in the Sixties still hangs in the air, & can be channelled by others who really weren't there when the status was quo. And they apply it to the far different wrongs of today.

By a curious & significant rhetorical inversion, those who disagree with them are accused of being deceived by a Spook from the Sixties. Young Republicans fancy themselves as hardnosed realists. (Not barbarians.) But this myth lends seeming legitimacy to all manner of vandalism against infrastructure: it's supposed to be putting things back where they were.

Seasons reversed down under. Do they call summer summer by the weather, or by the calendar? It's June, it's winter, & the connotations match, seem normal. Well, there are left & right political hemispheres of speaking; only, they seldom acknowledge that together their languages comprise a totality (even if only a totality of misunderstandings). This is not the part about right & wrong: this is the part about not being able to even talk to each other. Which actually is more important than stopping the wrong. Because it's the root of the wrong. The words we define differently, the aspects we choose to highlight or leave out. I know very well that the preponderance of right lies with the left, but it is wrong not to ever attempt to reach out. We are not going to be able to have the luxury of an utter rout, even after winning in November. You can't put the other half of the country in jail.

Most poetry chapbooks are like one course of tapas. At
the time you think, "This is really sort of
interesting," but afterwards you wish you'd gotten
more for your money.

Once again my email service has been "upgraded", shutting me & my antiquated browser out of my own mailbox. I have a new address which should be included on the link on this page, & i will be using it exclusively from now on... We are nomads, even in Cyberspace.

Under God. (thanx Melanie!) --Let me clarify. The part that is Stoic ethics, is good & worthy of being promulgated. The part that is Buddhist charity, ought to be pondered more by people who profess themselves to be "followers of Jesus". The part that is syncretic razzmatazz, has entertainment value but not much more. And the part that is totalitarian bullying--should not continue for one hour more.

An object of veneration appears surcharged with meaning. An object of contempt appears devoid of it.
The sage walks through the world.

Voting Democrat is like running into a tree to keep from hitting a child.

Listening to: "Jacob's Ladder" by A. Schoenberg.

"...our Scholar GoH [Guest of Honor] was also from a non-Anglophone background. Editor and translator Marcial Souto told us he grew up in a house with one book, which he read over and over again even though its beginning and end had fallen off and were lost. ...He discussed the joys and problems of translating: being 'the most attentive reader the book will ever have' and knowing that even in the least of books there is something to lose." --Arthur Hlavaty, in Nice Distinctions 6

Seeking, i grow superstitious. They play a rarity on the radio & i take it for a sign.

Sedlec. (via Planing Lakes)

Painting is Back.

"A Shadow Over Westchester"

words
are born
free, yet everywhere

the
only emperor
is the emperor

gray
clouds march
across the ruins

gods,
feared, whatever
they might be

06 12 04

RONALD WILSON REAGAN ENTERS INTO HEAVEN

'A raw, snarling noodle' with his fake dyed hair
Revenge buoys telepath
'Insane anglo warlord' sans his wits quits here
Tape lets you beg, never
Deluded a mob vents its programmed moan
Revenge buoys telepath
He took & took & took--yet you'd still fain give
Tape lets you beg, never
So here's my kiss-off to the shame of this
Revenge buoys telepath
He pledged an age of gold & what we get is iron
Tape lets you beg, never
And "Republican" means never having to say you're sorry.

06 12 04

"A Dollar's Worth of Blood, Please

With the last memo checked: They will sign, success; with the phone put down upon the day's last call; then with the door locked at last,
Wait; think;
What should the final memo be?

SAY THE LAST WORD,
SAY THE LAST WORD ADDING ALL WE'VE MADE AND LOST,
SAY THE LAST WORD THAT WEIGHS THE TRIUMPH SEALED IN INK AGAINST THE DEBT PRESERVED IN STONE AND THE PROFIT LOCKED IN STEEL,

One final word that the doorman knows, too, and the lawyer, and the drunk,
That the clerk knows, too, sure of tomorrow's pleasant surprise,
And the stranger, who knows there is nothing on earth more costly than hope and nothing in all the world held one-half so cheap as life,

One final word that need never be changed,
One final word to prove there is a use for the hard-bought distrust and the hard-won skill,
One final word that stands above and beyond the never-ending weakness and the never-failing strength,

SAY THE LAST WORD, YOU LONG STRAIGHT STREETS,
SAY THE LAST WORD, YOU WISE GUY, DUMB GUY, SOFT GUY, RIGHT GUY, FALL GUY, TOUGH GUY,
SAY THE LAST WORD, YOU BLACK SKY ABOVE."

--Kenneth Fearing