A Che Ora e La Fine del Mondo?

As much as I love R.E.M. this version always makes me smile.

I first heard Luciano Ligabue by complete accident after purchasing a random cd at an Autostrada rest stop while on a group tour (yeah, I was chicken to do Italy solo the first time) in 1994. It was his first cd and the song that intrigued me was Angelo della Nebbia (Angel in the Fog) which might be a reference to Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, but I can't remember. The cd was actually pretty good.

I found out much later that Ligabue's kind of the "Bruce Springsteen" of Italy.  

When I returned to Italy in 1996 to see Chihuly's Chihuly Over Venice installation I bought another handful of Ligabue cds.  Caught myself up to Buon Compleanno, Elvis (Happy Birthday Elvis) his latest at the time and probably the one I play most.  A Che Ora e la Fine del Mondo? (When is the End Of The World?, or more literally, at what time is the end of the world?)  was one of them.

Crazy stuff, eh?  Tutto pazzo!

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet White

She comes in colors everywhere

She's like a rainbow

(The Rolling Stones)

A Skull, A Suitcase and a Long Red Bottle of Wine 

Robyn Hitchcock 

(Black Snake Diamond Role)

"...and when you're gone there won't be anything behind

Except a skull

 A suitcase,

 And a long red bottle of wine"

Orange Crush 

R.E.M. (Green)

"Follow me

Don't follow me

I've got my spine

I've got my Orange Crush"

A band that not known for your typical rock anthem

But whose fans at live shows turn the most unlikely songs

 Into defacto anthems 

By singing along

As loud as the band.   

This song perhaps is that anthem. 

Yellow Submarine 

The Beatles (Revolver)

The film had

Cheery Peter Max-like animation art 

It wasn't Peter Max 

It was Heinz Edelman and Milton Glaser 

(of the "I heart NY" logo) 

Who were the art directors  

Ya just gotta sing along

 Furry Green Atom Bowl 

Robyn Hitchcock (I Often Dream of Trains)  

"There's roots in the earth and bones in the body

and that's the way it stays"

You really cannot add anything to a Robyn Hitchcock lyric

 Bitterblue 

 Cat Stevens (Teaser and The Firecat)

"I gave my last chance to you

Don't hand it back to me bitterblue 

No bitterblue"

A rocker from the Cat.  

This was continually playing on my teenage turntable

Though I liked the sad songs best

 (still do)

   This was in the heyday of the record album

 Which had album art

  And photographs

  Like this one

Which was in full color

 And took up an entire side

Of the album jacket

 Quite kissable, really

  I'd listen 

and wish for a Cat of my own

Purple Haze 

 Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced)

"Scuze me while I kiss the sky" 

Chunky guitar riff

  I didn't realize until fairly recently

 That he played left hand

 And everything was upside down

   In my defense

 I was in the first grade

 When this song topped the charts

Into White 

Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman)

"I build my house from barley rice

 Green pepper walls 

And water ice

Tables of paper-wood

Windows of light

And everything emptying 

Into white"

This song's

so beautiful

It almost hurts

Even now

30-odd years later

Coraline

We meant to go see George Plympton's Angels & Idiots, part of PIFF (the Portland International Film Festival) but I got there too late and even though Cynthia actually got a ticket, all the seats left were right down in front.   

Quick confab after her ticket was refunded - wanna go see Coraline?   To be fair, I'd already seen it and thought that Cynthia had as well.  But she hadn't.  I was having mild doubts about seeing it for a second time with someone who hadn't seen it yet - despite her e-mail:  "Wait. WAIT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coraline is OUT!!!?" (direct quote).  I shouldn't have worried.  Though I do feel a tad bit guilty that trying to get a drink and a snack before the film down the street from the cinema caused us to miss the brilliant opening title sequence and about the first 10 minutes.  Sorry, Cyn!  

The film actually needs a second viewing (and maybe a third & fourth) because it is simply so dense with detail that it is impossible to take everything in with just one.  I think good animation is naturally subject to this phenomena.  Take any Wallace and Gromit short or their Revenge of the Were Rabbit,  and you've got the same situation.  There's always something you didn't see (or didn't remember) 'last time' you saw it.  

For me the second time freed me of the surprise of the (necessary) plot changes from the book let me focus on the sheer complexity of the imagery.  Stop movement animation requires every shot to be set up by humans manipulating tiny clay and wire figurines with removable parts for their faces to make up their every eye twitch, blink, smile, eyebrow lift or mouth movement to speak.  Coraline herself had hundreds of facial options. Not movements, options - reconfigurations of her facial features.  The movements possible with the myriad options were infinite.  Multiply that on at least some degree by every character and critter in the story and you begin to see how amazing it all is.  

That doesn't even begin to address the teensy clothing that Coraline wears. 

 Micro-knit sweaters and stripey gloves; little shoes made from Victorian gloves; the way her hair moves and the cat's tail is poetically just like a real cat's tail but made of fur-covered wire and hand-arranged to express every nuance of his personality.   This is a labor of love that took years to make.

The 3D is simply amazing.  It doesn't seem a nifty 'let's throw everything in and see what we get' add on.  The mouse tails come out and wrap you in.  The contrast between the 3D and the graphic 'pixelation' to blank white at the edges of the Other Mother's world as Coraline begins to conquer it/her are perfect.  This is creepy in a very tangible way and perfectly honors the spirit and core of Gaiman's story while utilizing all the (sorry for the cliche) Magic that is possible when unleashed from the minds of a team of accomplished and creative animators. 

LAIKA's first born is a winner.

See it!  Do stay for all of the end-credits. Kelly and I didn't on the first viewing, but Cynthia and I did.  There's more little animated surprises - and we picked out the names of some folks we know in the credits.

Colorful Synchronicity

If I'd been paying better attention earlier in the week, I would have made it to the Sing Along Harold and Maude at the Hollywood Theater last Thursday night.   Unfortunately I learned about it at 6:30 p.m. the day of the show with screenings at 7 and 9 p.m.  I was a bit too tired to make it through the 9:00 show and still struggle to work on time the next morning.

At the same time, Splotchy put up the next Green Monkey Music Project challenge:  ROYGBIV & of course I wanna play and nimbly come up with a handful of Robyn Hitchcock and R.E.M. songs with the appropriate colors in their titles, completely spacing out all the Cat Stevens "color" song titles.

Splotchy, I'm trading out Dylan for Cat's Bitter Blue.   Still looking for Indigo and Violet.  

Meanwhile, enjoy some 70's nostalgia. Cat Stevens before he got weird.  While he was still dreamily handsome (the inside cover of Teaser and the Firecat was always on view in my teenage bedroom).  Damn he wrote and sang some good tunes!  Does he hold up?

He messes up at the end of Bitter Blue.  Hee!

Say What?

Salvador once

...and twice.