To be a Flower Child

Oh to be a flower child! I wanted so badly to participate in San Francisco and Woodstock. But, I wasn’t an overtly rebellious child so I just listened to the news, the music, wrote stories and tuned in to thoughts of being different than I was. I think that was one of the key draws to those events – an opportunity to be different. For most of my friends, it was the great dream to be something other than your parents or what your parents wanted you to be. Parents of a good friend of mine wanted him to be a brain surgeon. He so disappointed them when he got his doctorate in math. Now he teaches all those wonderful new brains coming into his college classes how to analyze, create, support and prove. He is teaching them how to think – his type of “brain surgery” is far more far reaching than his parents ever considered possible.

I read an article by Robert the Radish on what he thought were the #1 hits of the 1960s. He’s done a similar series on music of the 1970s and 1980s. His thought was that the “farther we go back [in #1 music hits] the better the hit songs….it seems music is nothing like technology. It does not improve with age” (Robert the Radish). He complained that for some years in the 1960s decade, there were no bad songs.

One of the great inventions of the 1960s was the convenience store 7 - 11. I remember taking weekend trips with my parents, coming home on Sunday night and having to go to the "milk box" to buy a half gallon of milk because grocery stores and filling stations weren't open on Sundays. 7-11 changed that. Times have changed. Now you can buy groceries and gas 24/7.

I don’t use “groovy” any more, or “out of sight”, but I’m known for my“far out!” and “ya’ll”. Reading a local listing of bands that will be presenting in our area this summer, I ran across Creole Stomp – style: high energy Creole and Zydeco. But my favorite is Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand – style: PostHeeHawFunkadelicHipHopNewGrass. How’s that for languaging! I wonder what their sound is really like?! What’s “New Grass?”

Don, your questions to the authors were wonderful! As a writer, I especially enjoyed your questions about whether or not my characters followed me around in my daily activities. The answer is YES! And sometimes if they’re not happy with what I’ve written during the day, they invade my sleep to set me right!  I’m looking forward to the responses from the other writers! Stay tuned – I’m hoping to share their answers on the blog.

I’ve been sitting in the Riddle Cave for several days now, puzzling out your last submission, Don. And I’m not feeling very confident. A juicer? A Salad Shooter? A knife? Are my guesses.

So mine back to you is:

Allows containment of papyrus and parchment

When dropped, makes a resounding clang scattering fake snow

Necessary for organization of information into neat categories and files

Storable in drawers out of sight or on shelves buried until needed

Advert:

I got Transport 21 out to the web developers on Saturday, Don. We welcome a new writer for us, Tamara Narayan. Her bio reads like a mystery – once a zookeeper, then a math professor, now a stay-at-home mom who loves to read and write. I think readers will like her style – twilight zonish. Her story with us this month is Pain Free Life. And it definitely has that  twilight zone touch.

I’m pleased to announce that Zack’s Captain Jackson in the Middle Ages is now complete with this last episode. He has finished his second “book”. As he and his wife get resettled through the summer, he’ll be working on the beginnings of the next Captain Jackson adventure. As his editor, I can only imagine what he has in store for his characters next!

Ariel is finishing up her 3-book trilogy. We only have 3 more episodes to go in this last book. I’m hoping that she has more for us.

 

 

 

Have a great week, Don.

Carolyn

Fig. 1/4 - I am a flower child. Retrieved from spiritualnetworks.com

Fig. 2 -Neighbors fight opening. Retrieved from blog.sfgate.com

Fig. 3 - It's all her fault. Retrieved from everlink.2010.blogspot.com 

Cool, Groovy and Far Out !

 Hi Carolyn,


That 60's research assignment sounds so cool. I would have been bolting towards the door to get started almost before you finished explaining it. Your choice of
technological advances from the 60's that influence our lives  made me think of pop culture influences from that decade. So, with  a definite and substantial  helping hand from Jane and Michael Stern's Encyclopedia of Pop Culture ( which is just as engrossing as You Tube )  I'm going there.  Pop Culture gets a bad rap from some folks sometimes.  It's treated the  same way that live stage treats the  movies and the  movies treat television and television treats radio , etc 

 Well, if its popular it means in one respect that most folks are still tuning in to it and talking to each other about it. The Sterns noted in their intro " Once at the periphery of what seemed to matter, pop culture has become the drumbeat of everyday life"  They pretty well nailed it , whether we snobs will acknowledge it or not!






There's such a  danger here that I'll just go off on a multi-page verbose and self-indulgent tangent about music.  I'm seriously fighting the urge! This was the decade in which America, in an act of futility,  sent  The Beach Boys and Motown to  fend off the British Invasion.   A bittersweet victory for the Brits, though.  The Fab Four, appeared, bloomed magnificently and withered in that one decade.
 Let me just say this before I change horses. If anyone had told me in 1963 that the Beatles would collapse into an accountant and  lawyer-fueled orgy of legal and personal acrimony and that those ( at the time)  scruffy sybaritic  Rolling Stones would still be up front a half century later I would have assumed, even at 13, that  they were drugged to the hilt.






So, how 'bout  the language thing?

It's amazing how much of the 60's and late 50's jargon has hung on and totally embedded itself. The Beatniks got it rolling right at the very end of the 50's. Things that " bug " you or things you " dig " or things that are a " drag" or are " funky " weren't expressed as such before then. A " hang-up " a " shack-up "  a " turn-on" or greeting someone with  " what's happening"  were not common parlance in pre-Beatnik times. The way we now commonly use the words " hip " " man " and " like " were inaugurated in Beatnik parlance.







And then this laid-back,  bohemian lifestyle, coupled with the whole mistrust of the square generation that those Mad Magazine reading kiddies in the fifties brought to the sixties helped  beget them there  " Hippies" . Harmless, happy flower children following Timothy Leary's advice to the max - " Tune in, turn on, drop out." A hippie life seemed like a pretty good life, for sure. Free love, love the one you're with and make love not war . It sure sounded lovely!


Well, the  idyllic lifestyle part may have collapsed as its acolytes grew up but the language didn't. Terms we all use and understand now came about in this hazy Camelot - terms like " bummer " " rip-off " and " hassle " still say what they mean, even if they id you as a flower child. It could be in part because they're being heard by another flower child.

It may be dating yourself to refer to something as " groovy " or " out of sight " or " freaky " but even in 2013 " doing your thing " still, essentially means doing what you want to do.

Okay, I'm in the you-know-what cave now. Your guess for my last riddle was semantically correct. It was actually " pardon" but " appeal" would probably get the vote of the lexicological judge. I'm gonna guess that yours for this time around is a paper clip. Here is mine for this week:

Squares or stars may get the point

Potent collaboration of cereal and oranges

Renders other devices uptight

Or sets them free

 

 

Don

 

 

 

 

 

 

fig 1 - goodreads.com

 

fig 2 - etsy.com

 

fig 3 - sandypine.blogspot.com

 

fig 4 - alleyace.deviantart.com

 

fig 5 - demotivationalposters.org

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology, Transportation and Space Ships!

Don,

Glad to hear the winter blahs are retreating! I got the same kind of lift just jogging last weekend. That was cut short by the new snow we had on Monday through Wednesday. You’d never guess that the snow was knee deep by Monday night. By mid-afternoon Thursday, it was just ankle deep with beautiful dark green grass and a halo of yellow showing through the drifts. I do so love spring!

Semantics are such a troublesome thing. You’re right, billiards is not a sweat producing sport unless you are losing. And I so agree about the card shark! Are we becoming so arm-chair bound that poker and mental competitions are the new “sports”?

On to other intriguing subjects. Every quarter I chose a topic to investigate along with my research class. This quarter I’m looking into the technological advances made in the 1960s that influence our lives today. I am totally amazed at what came out of that very tumultuous time. Not only did we land men on the moon, but the computer went from being warehouse size to calculator size.  Did you know that Kevlar was originally designed to take the place of steel belts in tires? Now Kevlar is in bike tires and in cell phones! The arpenet is the precursor of the internet, the original game box was a ping-pong game known as the Brown Box, and the dial tone not only gave speed dialing a new name, it led the way to the ATM! How in the world could we ever even conceive of life without these things?

Just out of curiosity, I was flipping through one of the science news streams that are available and I discovered a couple of things that are building on the 1960s. One of my favorite Saturday cartoons was the Jetsons. We haven’t developed the flying cars yet, but Hyundia unveiled the new personal mobility transport for those who think walking is old hat – the E4U. It goes 20 mph, weighs 176 pounds and looks like a huge egg. The critics think the required helmet is a bit much, but the power system has potential: a 24 V battery with a 500 watt electric motor. I didn’t read about how long it took to recharge or how far you could go on a single charge. But the fact that it was something that I could move if it got stuck was amazing to me! (I’m easily amazed these days.) This might be my answer to a scoter.

Then the news got even better! The University of Washington and MSNW, a space propulsion company, announced that they were close to a break through on a fusion rocket that would do a round trip to Mars in 30 – 90 days. That sure beats the current 500 day trip. The engine compresses plasma with a magnetic field which shoots hot ionized metal out the rocket nozzle. Sounds a bit Star Trekish. If metal becomes scarce, just pull up to an asteroid and mine a bit!

The news from Wormhole is all stories for May 3^rd publication have been submitted and edited! Transport 21 is a GO!  We’re publishing a new to us author, and I just got news from O’Ryan that maybe she’ll have something penned out for us in November.

Don, I’ve come up with what seem like lame questions to ask authors: How long have you been writing? What genre of book do you like to write best? How do you get the idea for your characters? Where do you get your plot ideas? How did you get into writing ebooks? (That answer should be fairly easy – “I was contacted by this crazy blonde …) Do you have any writing tips or advise to aspiring authors?     Any question suggestions, Don?

To the Riddle Cave!

My guess to your newest is: an appeal.

Mine was:  venetian blinds but I remember the test patterns. I used to watch for breaks in them on Sunday afternoons on channel 2 which announced Buck Rogers was about to explode onto the black and white screen. I’m not sure any of the stations around here go off the air any more – if they do, it is just a field of snow sizzling on the screen

So here is this week’s:

Looping curves of color

Silver, gold, blue, white, black green

Fastener of paper, files and hems

 

A definite show stopper if shredding

 

 

It's been a tough week here in the United States: Boston; West, Texas

 

My hat is off to all the responders - their job is difficult at best. Thank you for caring.

 

Carolyn

 

Fig 1 - www.123rf.com

Fig 2 - www.pcgameshardware.com

Fig 3 - quipster.wordpress.com

Fig 4 - cars.sulekka.com

Fig 5 - phys.org

Hits, misses and DNF's

Hi Carolyn,

First off, the rhapsodizing ! 

Recently, I was  blessed with a truly wonderful gift. It has made my heart sing and my senses soar. An oppressive and ponderous grief has been banished from my life and the wind of sweet freedom has lifted my spiritual skirt! What, you may ask, has transported me to this place a hair's breadth short of total rapture ??

Well....... I'll tell ya!!

I had my first motorcycle ride of 2013 on Monday last. That  hour and a bit with my two-wheeled therapist has clearly hurled me into remission from the winter blahs. When we were in Merida in February, I came very close to looking into a motorcycle rental. If we get back there next year I just might. Although the kamikaze look of traffic there might just see me rent a bug instead.  




 I'm back on earth now.  Alas, that delightful event was countered by an equally saddening one. Jonathan Winters left us a short time ago. Along with music I am also hopelessly addicted to humour - especially improvisational comedy. In that realm, Jonathan Winters was simply the best and that's not just my humble opinion. Behold him with one of his most fervent and devoted students. Others include Jim Carrey and Bill Cosby. Ten minutes of Mr. Winters was ten minutes of improv bliss incarnate.



So you checked out ballroom dancing already. I had no idea that it would be so pricey.

Regrettably , or perhaps fortunately,  my better half realized early on that while I do have a left and right foot ( as opposed to two lefties) neither likes the other enough to handle something as co-ordinated as couples dancing. I wish I was much more of a twinkle toes sometimes as I know she truly enjoys dancing of that kind.

  I will agree with you that billiards, done right, involves a healthy mix of fine motor skills and mental acuity  but I just don’t think of it as a “sport“. It’s a semantic thing. I’d call it a competitive activity but not a physical, sweat-inducing, calorie-gobbling sport - like baseball, hockey, football, gymnastics, tennis or the like.










To further muddify things, the line between sports and histrionics is being blurred by media.  I can’t get past the idea that some shifty-eyed, chair-bound card shark can enter our cultural consciousness as a sports figure by virtue of relentless exposure on sports networks and poker websites.








Now for some lexicological sports.  I was absolutely surprised to have gotten the bifocals riddle, Carolyn, as my guess was a complete shot in the dark. My previous offering was snowtires, which are snowshoes of a sort, for vehicles. Quebec, right next door to us has just recently made them mandatory for a part of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other jurisdictions in North America or other snowy latitudes that have done likewise. 

As a nighthawk, my guess for your most recent riddle is the sign-off or test pattern most TV stations use when not actually broadcasting. Here's my rejoinder:

Can be sought by begging
Or approaching the bench
Verbal response to an unclear message

 

 

 

 

And on that note, I too, will sign-off.

 

 

Don

 

 

 

Fig. 1 - clipartmojo.com

Fig. 2 - www.cnn.com

Fig.  3 - flopturnriver.com

Fig. 4 - studdedwintertires.ca 



Academy awards Argo?!

Thanks for the support, Don. Putting away the climbing was one of the harder things I’ve done this year. We considered ballroom dancing but discovered the lessons for two cost more than two pair of running shoes. One of my favorite girly flicks is Shall We Dance. I think the attraction might be Richard Gere… but the movie made me investigate ballroom dancing. I’d love to see us on the floor, like the couple you described as “an absolute study in fluidity and grace.” Ah well, another decade perhaps.

Don, I’m not sure I would qualify sailing and motorcycling as passive. And I’ve seen and played enough billiards to know that it takes dexterity and fluidity of  body and thought. Like you, it amazes me how much I can be in denial of the changes in my body due to “experiencing life”. I guess it is still that wanting things not to change. Would I chose to be young forever? Only if I can keep the memories and learn to be wise.

Interesting you should mention the A-Team remake – it is one of my favorite “when I don’t I want to do or think about anything” movies. I so agree, it is Olympic candy-floss. Which brings us to this year’s Academy Awards. We’d kept up  with seeing the nominated best movies but we’d not seen Argo by Awards time.  We saw Lincoln on a big screen and were blown totally away by the grandeur and scope of the project. Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln was, in our opinion, a stroke of genius.  When the Academy gave the Best Picture award to Argo, we were stunned! I felt it was a slap in the face for Stephen Speilberg.


How could such an awe-inspiring accomplishment be ignored?

A couple of weeks ago I found Argo in the $5 bin at WalMart and bought it. We watched it and now I understand. Ben Afflick as an actor leaves a lot to be desired, especially when he is directing. But the scenes he directed when he wasn’t acting are memorable. But I think it is the story line itself. Lincoln was predictable – we all knew that in the end, he was going to die. Just like we all knew the Titanic was going sink – no amount of spectacular was going to change the ending. Yes, we know the ending of Argo – the embassy people get saved thanks to Canadian hospitality. (I acutally found a neat picture of "Canadian hospitality") But it was the way they were saved. There were no high speed car chases, no shoot outs – just intense intrigue of “how are they going to do this?”

Like I said, the acting (not counting Afflick) was good – not terrific, not "stand up join a fan club" kind of acting. But everyone played well off of each other, the plot line was great; and most importantly, it was different from the other movies in the same category. It was just as intense, just as electrifying , just as fast paced as any action film we’ve  seen. I found myself  shallow breathing while the plane was taking off in the end and I didn’t really breathe until it was announced the plane had made it into free airspace.  Sometimes the unexpected is what wins the day.

Riddle Cave! What a name! Okay, Don, you were correct - bifocals. The hearing aspect is only because glasses fit over the ears.
My guess for yours is: snow shoes

So - I'm pretty sure this one is self-evident, but thought I'd spin it out anyway.

Blocker of the view of the world

either striped or horizontal

colors of the rainbow

heavy or not

Well, time to finish the edits for next month's ezine without commercials Transport 21. We have a new author who is sharing her Twlight Zonish talents with us!

Have a good week everyone!
Carolyn

Images:
fig 1 - www.123rf.com
fig 2 - www.ferbacco.blogspot.com  
fig 3 www.aceshowbiz.com
 

Unabshed Free Books!

Join our authors as we celebrate 18 months of publishing! And in Zack' case, the celebrating of getting the marines out of the frying pan into the fire! He's just completed the series which will transform into a book in late fall. Watch for it!
Advert:
Captain Jackson and the Long Trail Free! by Zack Varvel through Amazon on April 11th. Also available through Amazon UK.

Wormhole Electric Fantasy Collection is Free! through Amazon on April 11th and 12th! Also available through Amazon UK.

Tinsel, Grace and True Confessions

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Carolyn,

Sorry that you’re hanging them up. Clearly you got a great deal of gratification from that activity, but to continue would be irrationally dangerous. Completely good choice, all things considered.

  Hey , what about ballroom dancing ? Seriously, Carolyn, it can be quite a workout and I can’t think of anything more potentially gratifying that can be done in plain view with a significant other . We went to a weekly big band concert, under the stars of course, at a local Church one Tuesday evening in Merida . One of the most pleasurable parts was the myriad of couples dancing . One unassuming Mr. and Mrs. in particular stuck in our minds. They were quiet, shabby and almost without expression… until the band began. Then, what an absolute study in fluidity and grace they became when they danced. It was as if they were one being. It was, as Van the Man would say “ … a marvellous night for a moondance “




　

I completely appreciate the reasoning behind your decision, though. No matter how robust our favorite activities are,  it sucks to realize that our bodily standard equipment is slipping off warranty. I’m reminded too often now of how shop-worn the carcass is becoming .  I wish I could fully empathise, Carolyn, but I am as athletic as a soap dish - my sport CV lists recreational sailing, motorcycling and billiards. Not a conspicuously athletic activity in the lot.


Plus - I have an abiding love of smoked, dried or pickled stuff, and many of those nefarious edibles that taste so sinfully good because they‘re so egregiously bad for you. I read Fast Food Nation and even incorporated parts of it into my Media Studies course for a few years but it didn’t put me off culinary slumming. I just made some pickled sausages with Mexican spices brought back from our Yucatan adventure. And they are muy fino! I try to  limit myself to two sausages a week, though.

  

Although, about 3 decades ago , as part of the giving up smoking thing, I traded nicotine for endorphins for about a year and got into running. I was up to 10km per run 3 times weekly but I got so frickin’ skinny that I had to buy new clothes . I wasn't a doughboy initially, so it was just an unwelcome expense.  Plus, the shoes cost more than the first two cars I ever owned combined.

　

True Confession Corner

 From the “ I can’t believe I watched the whole thing “ files.  

 

 I stumbled across the A-Team remake movie on the small screen a bit ago and in a fit of random mindlessness watched it through. I hadn’t intended to do so. Initially I was just going to spend a few minutes there to confirm that it was just haphazardly assembled pop-culture pandering of the worst kind. Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s candy floss, to be sure, but it's  five-star Olympic calibre candy-floss.

  This movie is unequivocally  A-List Vegas  stuff. Like Vegas, it's vulgar, spectacular and overblown.  But,  it’s platinum-plated vulgarity and spectacle, and that's the kicker! 

One of the reasons Diamonds Are Forever remains my all time favorite Bond flick is because of the minor odyssey into the glitzy, glittery smarm of Vegas that it takes us on (  it's vintage late 60's Vegas, when Howard Hughes lurked in ostentatious seclusion on the penthouse floor of the Desert Inn and the Rat-Pack ruled. ) The Bond movie, like Vegas itself, is  mental tapioca, but with the very best of production values and so is this flick. It’s not a frowsy bimbo trying to be a jewelled baroness, it’s a splendidly tailored, coiffed and manicured showgirl strutting unabashedly onstage in the best sequins and rhinestones money can buy.

Would I watch the A-Team movie again?? 

 Only if I was stuck inside, couldn’t sleep and had just it  or the 24-hour Televangelism channel to choose from.


Okay, to the Riddle cave, Robin! Your last one was tough, Carolyn. I'm gonna guess it's bifocals. I know that completely ignores the hearing aspect but there's been a ripple in the riddle force lately and that's the best I can do. I offer the following in rebuttal:



Round and sure-footed

Fashion surrenders to function

Mandatory in some places for some months

Essential for slippery progress

 

  

Don

Advert:
Captain Jackson and the Long Trail  Free! by Zack Varvel through Amazon on April 11th. Also available through Amazon UK.
Wormhole Electric Fantasy Collection is Free! through Amazon on April 11th and 12th! Also available through Amazon UK.
Join our authors as they celebrate 18 months of publishing! And in Zack' case, the celebrating of getting the marines out of the frying pan into the fire!

Thanks, Don for letting me have the space to announce!

fig. 1 - thelondonacademyofdance.com
fig. 2 - offthedeependinc.com
fig. 3 - homebrewtalk.com
fig. 4 - las-vegas-printing.com
fig. 5 - somebodystolemythunder.blogspot.com
fig. 6 - notjustnewmovies.com

Hanging it up

I had originally intended to write further about graphic novels and education. In fact, I actually wrote two pages on the subject. When I reread it, I discovered how totally boring it was. If the writer is bored, I can only imagine what the readers would think. So I’ve moved on.

Part of the climbing problem was we came to it late in our lives. We were over 55 when we started so we didn’t have the confidence to lead climb. Everyone we climbed with took good care of us, but I’m sure they felt the strain of having to set our ropes so we invited to outdoor climb less and less frequently. Our last outdoor climb included an unwanted guest – a rattle snake, so we took our climbing indoors. We gym climbed for about a year, but that got old. Even the indoor routes were being set to get people ready for the rigors of outdoor climbing, not for people who were just maintaining their skills. Then my arm began to act up, and my thumbs decided not to participate in the climbing process. I thought taking some time off would help. Physical therapy did wonders, but it brought me to the point of - do I climb or do I grade papers? I can’t figure out how to climb without my thumbs. It is with a sad heart, I put my shoes away.

So it has been quiet, long winter. I spent a lot of time riding the vintage stationary bike, looking out at the street while I cycled away. It got me through the cold months. But spring is here and I find myself wanting to be outdoors doing something that isn’t yard or garden related. My daughter-in-law suggested running, or at least speed walking. I’d considered running before, but only knew people who were injured runners who wanted to run again. Sounded a lot like me and climbing . I decided to avoid this exercise at all costs. I tried the speed walking thing only to discover that I had the wrong shoes. My shoes are tough heavy soled hiking tennies, great for mountain hikes (like getting to a rock face to climb), but not designed for speed walking. What is the best shoe? A running shoe – there’s that word again – running.

My daughter-in-law, Honey, (yes, her name really is Honey,) sent me the url for the Couch to 5K site. I read it, looked into the schedule, read the included links to various articles, but I still wasn’t convinced that running was the thing for me. Too many possible injuries. I was at the bookstore and discovered a magazine, Runners World, that had a great section on  shoes, injury prevention and a great little article on Chi Running. I won’t bore you with the details, but I discovered that there is a way to run that is almost injury free. And the local running shoe store advertised a free form clinic. Three times "running" showed up. Honey and our son are transferring to China next fall and apparently there are lots of 5Ks we can do – Honey was brazen enough to suggest we start a 5K around the world bucket list. Interesting idea.

I did a cost comparison. Running shoes are expensive! And having an interval timer and a cadence metronome are helpful, which adds to the cost. But driving to the parking lot to hike to a rock face is getting more expensive with gas, and gyms are not cheap. The climbing equipment is good only for climbing (well, the rope makes for good tree climbing as does the harness,) but the shoes and the quick draws and the other tools needed are not cheap and not made for anything else. Running is something I can do the minute I leave my front door and if I can’t run, I’m equipped to the fast walk. And best of all - age doesn’t matter.

We did our first 60 second run, 90 second walk cycle for 25 minutes yesterday. We didn’t break any records. And this new beginning reminds both my husband and I of when we were just starting to climb - posture and style are everything. Too bad there isn’t a buzzer at the end of the run to announce to the world I made it home.

5K around the world. Hmmmm. Anyone want to buy some quick draws – only used three times?

Riddle: Okay Don, I got my thesaurus out...

Improves hearing

Divinely perched on the sneezer

Magnifies and puts into perspective the world

 

A new contest is out through sowrite.us.com! How well can you write spam? Check it out!

Advert:
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Wormhole Electric Transport 20 is now on Amazon and Amazon UK.
You can wet your appetite by going to http://www.wormholeelectric.com and reading the first chapters for free!
 

Figures:
fig. 1: bestclipartblog.com
fig. 2: godoreen.com

 

 

Adieu Stanley, Catch Ya Later

 
  Well, Stanley, this is where we part ways for now, alas. I could continue singing your praises almost eternally but this isn’t a Kubrick Fansite. I’ve saved one of the best parts for the denouement, though .In fact “singing” just might be the apropos verb here.






 


Stanley Kubrick has, for me at least, been the best example of something I was on about in these very pages a few months back - the sometimes beautiful, sometimes unsettling but always fruitful melding of music and cinema. I have not been able to see the musical “ Singing in the Rain”, nor have I been able to hear the Blue Danube Waltz, or the William Tell Overture, or Ode to Joy or a number of other musical pieces without being instantly and indelibly sent to a scene in one of Kubrick’s movies. Yes, he’s effectively nullified the original impact of that iconic scene from the Gene Kelly musical for me forever. He's also sent  my mind's eye to the moon when my ears used to tell me that I was  in a Viennese Ballroom.

 But , talk about the sum exceeding its parts! On more than many occasions I have, when looking to soothe my brain in anticipation of sleep, strapped on the well worn I-pod Touch and earphones ( the in-ear buds so nothing outside can intrude) and summoned the Blue Danube sequence from You Tube. Even on that miniscule screen, once the orchestra is struck up, I am stricken, most happily, with that wonderful combination of candy for both the eyes and ears and will happily doze off once it has finished. ( wow, I think I just rhapsodized there !! )




This, for me is one of the best parts of my Kubrick-itis.



It pops up elsewhere too. Whenever I hear The Beach Boys " All Summer Long " I am right back with Kurt, the young cerebral Richard Dreyfuss in American Graffitti leaving, bleary-eyed, on the early morning plane for college after a last furtive night of experience-cramming in small-town U.S.A. He looks down and on the highway is that spectral white T-Bird once more. You know, the one that just a few hours before had haunted him with flashes of " The most perfect, dazzling creature ever seen. " The camera spends a moment or two on his face and then cuts to a blue sky and the credits start to roll and All Summer Long's first cheerful chords begin. I am left to contemplate just how great the movie I just saw, was.  Damn, that's feel-good stuff!

 


But wait, there's more. The only instance for me of a two songs back-to-back in a movie experience of the same phenomenon. Ferris Bueller's Day Off  is the flick here and Ferris has disappeared. His best friend Cameron and girlfriend Sloane are looking for him in the middle of the Chicago Von Steuben Day parade. Boom! he turns up on a float amidst a bevy of Bavarian babes lip-synching   Wayne Newton's uber-cheesy  Danke Shoen. That's funky and quirky all by itself ( remember, this was an 80's teen flick.... ) and it's a satisfying moment even then but just as the dust is settling on that, the opening chords of The Beatles cover of The Isley Bros.  Twist and Shout  crank things up a notch or twelve and the next few minutes are just plain make ya feel good visual and musical manna from celluloid heaven. I won't describe it for ya, just check it out yourself, if you've not seen it before.

 I defy anyone who is battling the blahs to watch that sequence through and not get some feel-better out of it.  Double Damn, that's feel-good good stuff!

So, I'm 85% sated here just from going back to those moments above so there's not quite enough left for an onslaught of riddling. In fact, I'll follow your lead, Carolyn, and take a one entry hiatus from it. My previous entry was " belt". I shall return with more next time, make no mistake.



Don.





Fig. 1 - entertainment.time.com
Fig. 2 - just-mygoal.blogspot.com
Fig. 3 - locallygrownnorthernfield.org
Fig. 4 - theImagazine.com