I don’t do these impromptu posts often, but when I hear a good thing it makes me just want to expose it, like the David Hobson version of song – Jerusalem a few days ago. I just finished writing a post about a song from The War on Drugs which will come out on Jan 22nd. But this song on my rest day must come out now. Please watch this from 17.07 in the video below or ideally listen to the first song and then this song. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Still XMAS here and by God are we are blessed with Grace.
Happy Christmas all! To celebrate this year’s Christmas festivities I would like to present a narration by Bing Crosby of a moving Christmas story called The Small One like I did last year and will continue doing on the 25th. I loved listening to this as a child around Christmas time. It was on the same LP (image above) as Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince which I posted about in May 2 years ago.
According to wikipedia: The Small One is a Charles Tazewell story with musical accompaniment from Victor Young and His Orchestra. Charles Tazewell was a radio playwright and children’s book author, whose work has been adapted multiple times for film…..
I want to use this opportunity to thank everyone who has been so supportive of my blog. I feel owing in gratitude to have conversed with you along the way because it has made this venture all the more satisfying. I wish you and all your families a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.
We have been going on an Australian acting odyssey these recent weeks with movie articles on Geoffrey Rush in Shine, Toni Collete in Muriel’s Wedding and Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, the latter which I saw again for the umpteenth time 2 nights ago. For today’s featured film we embark into the Psychological-Horror realm with the wonderful Toni Collete in lead. Hereditary, alongside Mandy (reviewed here some time ago) were the two best Horror films to come out in the pre-pandemic 2018 film season.
IMDB Storyline: When her mentally ill mother passes away, Annie (Toni Collette), her husband (Gabriel Byrne), son (Alex Wolff), and daughter (Milly Shapiro) all mourn her loss. The family turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.
I wouldn’t say the genre of supernatural horror is my cup of tea since it contains just so few well-made films, but Hereditary held me in its grip and I had to revisit it to inculcate its ending. This movie about a half-way through contains one of the most jaw-dropping horror scenes I have ever seen. Interestingly, it reflected a real-life incident from 2004 in Marietta, Georgia. Anyone who has seen the film will know the one I am referring to and essentially turns the movie on its head (pun intended). Toni is so good here as the mother of the family beset by supernatural forces.
The film received acclaim from critics, and it made over $80 million on a $10 million budget to become one of the highest-grossing film worldwide. This was writer-director – Ari Aster’s first directorial debut and he originally pitched the film as domestic drama than an outright horror film. He interpreted the film as two halves which are “completely inextricable from each other“. Toni Collete was originally reluctant to work on a horror film, but due to the script’s grounded approach she felt committed to do it. Toni Collette said that Ari Aster was the most prepared director she’s ever worked with.
Eres Tu (It’s You) is one of my favourite Spanish songs. It was written by Juan Carlos Calderón and performed by the Spanish band Mocedades, with Amaya Uranga performing the lead vocal. We are not just talking about any song here, ‘Eres Tu‘ remains one of the few Spanish speaking songs to make the top 10 in the United States.
I brought it up in the comments of another post here, but if you listen to the beginning of Bob Dylan’s – Is Your Love in Vain (1978), it has an uncanny resemblance to the introduction of today’s song Eres Tu. Coincidence or Love and Theft?
In 1967, in the Basque city of Bilbao, three young sisters, including today’s singer Amaya formed a vocal trio singing folk and spiritual music and spent a year performing around their hometown. Producer Juan Carlos Calderón in Madrid took an immediate interest in the group and named them Mocedades, meaning “youths“. Eres Tu was chosen as the Spanish entry in 1973 for the Eurovision contest. This song also has an English version titled “Touch the Wind” with lyrics by Mike Hawker. I hope you enjoy the original below.
Like a promise, it’s you, it’s you Like a summer morning Like a smile, it’s you, it’s you So, so, it’s you
All my hope, it’s you, it’s you As fresh rain in my hands Like a strong breeze, it’s you, it’s you So, so, it’s you
Ankidroid additions related to Science, History and Philosophy. You can find more information about Ankidroid in my post – Learning a Second Language and Ankidroid.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 -1860)
A German philosopher who posthumously influenced many in science and philosophy (Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein and Carl Jung to name a few).
His works have been described as exemplary manifestation of philosophical pessimism. Listen to his Studies in Pessimismhere.
Limbic System
A group of subcortical structures of the brain that are concerned with emotion and motivation, especially when it comes to behaviours we need for survival: feeding, reproduction and caring for our young, and fight or flight responses. It is also said that ironically Facebook and Twitter have limbically hijacked our brains.
Dark Matter
A hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for 85% of the matter in the universe. The mayority of Dark Matter is thought to be composed as of yet undiscovered subatomic particles. Its presence is implied by gravitational effects. Experts think Dark Matter to be ubiquitous in the universe and to have a strong influence on its structure and evolution.
One of the consequences is, it isn’t just space that curves, but the fabric of spacetime itself — is that as masses move around between a distant source and ourselves, the amount of time that it takes light to arrive should shift by very small but measurable amounts.
Above any other piece, this Mozart concerto is why I chose to write about music. My grandmother Dorothy Walton (pictured above) who I adored so much and miss beyond belief played this Mozart concerto to us. Dot as she was affectionately known always read from the library. My Nan borrowed books weekly and just read and read until she had to borrow her next set. If my Nan didn’t do that she played her piano.
As I write about this now my eyes well up with tears. My Nan and I were at one as though there was nothing she could do which was wrong nor I in her mind. When you have that unrequited love for another…
This concerto also concludes my No1 favourite movie – Amadeus as seen in the video at the end of this post. By the way, I recommend admirers of the movie to see the making of Amadeus documentary here. It’s staggering what Mozart wrote around this time period, like the Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Abduction from the Seraglio amongst many other great works written about here. The first performance of today’s piano concerto was performed by Mozart as soloist. Can you imagine being at Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on 11 February 1785?
Mozart’s father, Leopold was impressed and wrote to his daughter that Mozart had written an excellent piano concerto. Even the young Ludwig van Beethoven admired this concerto and kept it in his repertoire. The piano which Mozart owned is on display at Mozart House in Salzburg, but it once had a pedal board like that of an organ. According to Leopold, his son Mozart played this concerto with the pedal board which he says was used to to reinforce the left-handed part or add lower notes than the standard keyboard. Read the wikipedia article for more information.
Bruce Goodman is not only a good friend in virtual world, but my favourite story-teller or cuentero. I am perplexed how his best-of haven’t been published in an actual book. I imagined they would make excellent coffee-table books for their peculiarity and flamboyance. So the left page would be his story and the right a drawn image associated with the theme. Today’s featured story from Bruce is in my top 100 by him. It left me google-eyed by the end:
Lynette thought fortune cookies we sort of fun but she didn’t believe a word of what they said of course. She was eating Asian with her boyfriend one afternoon, and when she broke open the fortune cookie there was a tiny map inside. Clearly it was a section of the town she lived in; at least the three named streets on the map were the same. There was a little cross marked on the map….(Read entire story here)
Tomorrow’s article features one of my favourite pieces of music, a Piano Concerto (lips are sealed about which) by Mozart which my Grandmother played frequently. As I researched the article I stumbled across this gem of how Amadeus the movie was made. I have watched my fair share of ‘Making-of’ movie docos, but this captivated me more than any other. You want to see about how movies used to be made.. especially the legendary ones, then look no further my fellow movie aficionados. (View entire documentary here)
Forgive my self-promoting, but as XMAS rapidly approaches I felt it only fitting to relay this post about my favourite posts relating to Navidad. Last XMAS I did in fact do away with my Scrooge costume and had a wondrous festive few days with family.
Let’s be honest, it has been a wretched year for most. I admit I am ordinarily a Scrooge come XMAS, but this year more than any other I truly, madly deeply want to celebrate this Christmas in all its glory. To bring back some semblance of normality and tradition to this crazy life of 2020, this is my attempt to focus on what Christmas really means, and by sharing it I hope I can undo the parts of Scrooge in me and foster in others the aspiration to do the same. Merry XMAS everyone! (Read whole article here)
End of the Line is from one of the most accessible country and folk – rock records I have ever heard – Traveling Wilburys Volume 1. If I had to choose just one album to introduce someone to this genre of music I wouldn’t hesitate choosing this one. There isn’t a mediocre song on it and it ends with today’s stellar and catchy track – End of the Line.
Two songs have already featured from this album, namely Congratulations and Dirty World. I would point you to the former if you would like to read more about this album and a link to the wonderful documentary about how the Traveling Wilburys came to be and produced this remarkable record.
Today’s song video hits a sombre note as it shows an empty rocking chair and lone guitar of the band’s most affable member Roy Orbison who passed away just before this video was made. So End of the Line is really a moving tribute to him, not to mention how Volume 2 was skipped in respect to him. So they went straight to Volume 3 after making this.
This song was mainly written by George Harrison, but all five members received a songwriting credit for their collaboration effort. It peaked at No 63 on the main charts, but I remember seeing it a plenty on the Rage program top-hits growing up. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played this song live during their 2008 North American tour. The main reference as usual in the writing of this article is Wikipedia.
Jeff Lynne spoke of the recording sessions: “Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’ … Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [mic] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.’
It’s Christmas time. I don’t know how David Hobson did it, but he did. There are fewer songs more difficult than this one to sing, but Hobson in Melbourne Christmas Eve 2012 sung this song and absolutely killed it. I don’t know how he maintained that voice and power throughout, but he did. I can’t imagine what it was like to be there for Carols by Candlelight during that performance. This is one of the greatest live performances of anything I’ve seen.
A few weeks ago I showed a friend of mine the scenes at the bottom of this post from the Australian film Shine. It then occurred to me I hadn’t reviewed this movie on Friday’s Finest. Shine came out 2 years after last week’s reviewed Australian film Muriel’s Wedding. The 1990’s is arguably the best decade of Australian cinema which contained films likeBabe, Romper Stomper, Priscilla – Queen of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom, The Castle and today’s featured film – Shine.
Shine became an unexpected international hit winning an Oscar for Geoffrey Rush (beating odds-on favourite Tom Cruise for his role as Jerry Maguire whom personally I think deserved it since it’s one of my favourite movies, but we’ll keep that between you and I).
Shine is based on the life of piano genius David Helfgott, a child prodigy whose schizo-affective disorder manifested in young adulthood, causing a mental breakdown. He spent years in an institution before making an unlikely recovery. The two scenes below are respectively his mental breakdown after playing one of Rachmaninov’s most difficult pieces – The Piano Conerto No 3 and his re-emergence as a much older man playing Flight of the Bumblebee in a local restaurant. At the Academy Awards ceremony, the real-life Helfgott received a standing ovation for a fevered rendition of the same famous piece.
Shine grossed $35,892,330 in the United States and Canada. The film also grossed $10,187,418 at the box office in Australia. Interestingly Geoffrey Rush resumed piano lessons—suspended when he was 14 —in order not to require a hand double.
In terms of the movie’s actual historical accuracy there appears controversy about how Helfgott’s father was portrayed as an abusive tyrant. Helfgott’s sister Margaret Helfgott maintained in her book that their father was a loving husband and an overly lenient parent. The director Scott Hicks published a letter to The Wall Street Journal when Margaret Helfgott’s book came out, defending the authenticity of the movie’s portrayal of Helfgott’s childhood and suggesting that David’s other siblings, Susie and Les, were at odds with Margaret’s claims and were happy with the movie. Shine remains for me an iconic movie.
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