Writer Christopher Hitchens tells a great story about the playwright and activist Lillian Hellman. Late in her life, she was speaking at a college and someone asked her why, considering all of her activist work, she had not been a vocal advocate for gay rights. As the elderly Hellman leaned on her cane and looked through her thick glasses, she explained, “The forms of f**king do not require my endorsement.”
Tonight, though, the New York Senate considered whether to endorse gay marriage, moments ago passing a bill that allows it. The New York Assembly had already passed the bill, which will now go to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who announced he will sign the bill. So, it appears New York will become the sixth and largest state to legalize gay marriage. The law, of course, is landmark legislation considering the history of discrimination, including the Stonewall Rebellion that began in New York City forty-two years ago this coming Monday when police raided a gay nightclub.
I realize that people are divided on the issue, and many of us have views on gay marriage that have changed over time, just like Republican NY Sen. Mark Grisanti, who talked about his change on the NY Senate floor. But whatever you think about whether such things should require approval, you cannot deny that everyone needs somebody to love.
In the above video, Freddie Mercury and Queen perform “Somebody to Love” off of A Day at the Races (1976). Mercury was recently voted the second greatest singer of all time in an NME Magazine poll and voted the best in a radio poll.
Viewer 1: “What the hell?” Viewer 2: “Shut up.” — Overheard during showing of Tree of Life
Since I watched Days of Heaven(1978) in a college movie theater, I have been a fan of director Terrence Malick. Seeing that beautiful and poetic movie was a unique cinema experience that changed my expectations and aspirations for movies. Little did I know then, though, that twenty years would pass between the time Malick made that movie and his next one, The Thin Red Line (1998), but I would love that movie too. Although he only has made five movies in a span of thirty-eight years, they are all unique and beautiful. So I was eagerly anticipating Tree of Life (2011), and its ruminations on life and death set around a suburban 1950s family, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain.
I give that background to disclose my expectations for Tree of Life. As has been noted in other Chimesfreedom posts, sometimes high expectations may doom your enjoyment of a movie. Either way, I was disappointed by Tree of Life. Maybe I will change my mind after repeated viewings and further reflection, as there is a lot to think about from the film.
Tree of Life is an ambitious movie, attempting to tie together creation, the meaning of life, memory, and maybe even the afterlife. There are beautiful scenes and big questions, as the movie ponders the age-old question of why the world was formed just to result in human pain and suffering. There is not much of a plot, but you do not go to a Malick movie looking for a story; you go looking for poetry. The film focuses on one boy and his interactions with two brothers and a loving mother and a frustrated disciplinarian father (Pitt). The movie gives you glimpses of their daily lives with occasional whispering voice-overs, but the narrating boy never whispers anything as literal as “I see dead people.”
The acting is good throughout. The child actors, including Hunter McCracken, do an excellent job, and Pitt gives a standout performance. If you go to the movie because you are a fan of Sean Penn, you should know that he only appears in the film about fifteen minutes more than the dinosaurs do.
Conclusion? I was not engaged for most of the first half hour and the ending, but the middle of the movie drew me into it. Overall, I wish more movies were as ambitious as this one, but I also wish this one reached its lofty goals a little more than it did. Most critics are getting this one right by saying it is an unusual movie that some people will love and others will hate, although I fell in the middle. So you should check it out for yourself if you think you might like a movie with high aspirations that may be more challenging than entertaining.
If you want to check out some other views, Rotten Tomatoes currently has a score of 86% by critics and 66% by viewers. Also, Bill Goodykoontz at the Arizona Republic has a very good positive review of Tree of Life (“Beautiful, baffling, poetic, pretentious, it’s one big ball of moviedom”), and Roger Moore at the Orlando Sentinel has a very good negative review (“this challenging time-skipping rumination is the big screen equivalent of watching that ‘Tree’ grow”).
What did you think of Tree of Life? Leave a comment.
Today, Glen Campbell’s representative announced that the singer has Alzheimer’s disease and will be making his final tour later this year. Campbell’s wife Kim explained that they wanted fans to know about the illness in case it affected his performances on stage.
On August 30, Campbell is releasing a new album, Ghost On The Canvas, featuring Jakob Dylan, Paul Westerberg, Chris Isaak, and Billy Corgan. While it has been a long time since I listened to new music by him, I am still fond of several of his classic songs from earlier in his career. I remember watching his television show, and of course, he was in the original True Grit. So, our wishes and prayers go out to him and his family through this time in his life.
My favorite Glen Campbell song used to be “Rhinestone Cowboy,” but as I have aged, I have grown more fond of “Gentle on My Mind.” Maybe you prefer “Wichita Lineman” or “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” or another song. But in later years as I have listened more closely to the lyrics of “Gentle on My Mind,” I have discovered an unusual poetry in their words (“I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin’ cracklin’ cauldron”). Although the song was written by John Hartford (who was inspired by the film Doctor Zhivago), Campbell’s delivery of the song about a wandering man’s memories of a lost or abandoned love reveals a true talent conveying complex emotions in a pop song.
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines, And the junkyards and the highways come between us; And some other woman’s cryin’ to her mother ’cause she turned and I was gone; I still might run in silence, Tears of joy might stain my face, And the summer sun might burn me till I’m blind; But not to where I cannot see You walkin’ on the back roads By the rivers flowin’ gentle on my mind.
“Gentle on My Mind” was the title song off Campbell’s sixth album, which was also his first hit album. The single, though, was not a hit at the time, but it has earned a classic status over the years. The song has been recorded by greats like Elvis Presley, Lucinda Williams, and Dean Martin. But Campbell’s recording will always be what we associate with the song. His version keeps me ever smiling and remains gentle on my mind.
What is your favorite Glen Campbell song? Leave a comment.
While recently talking to my mom on the phone, she blurted out, “I really like that Lady Gaga.” After recovering from the surprise that my mom even had heard of Lady Gaga, I listened to my mom’s explanation. My mom had seen Lady Gaga on several talk shows and was impressed with her as a person and her devotion to her fans, i.e., Little Monsters.
Regular readers of Chimesfreedom have probably already figured out that we are fans of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Considering some of the music featured in this blog so far, one might think we turn up our nose at current popular music. But while E Street Band member Clarence Clemons has been in the news, we also have been listening to some of Clemons’s recent work on Lady Gaga’s new album, Born This Way.
Last week, Lady Gaga released a new video for “Edge of Glory,” and it is great to see Clemons playing in the video. We are excited that Lady Gaga gave Clemons a new fan base, and we are touched that Lady Gaga and her Little Monsters made a sincere video for the ailing Big Man before he passed away.
I recently suggested “Edge of Glory” to a musician friend who is a Springsteen fan, but he immediately rejected the song without listening to it because it was by Lady Gaga. A number of people have written nasty comments under the video on YouTube too. But sometimes popular music is popular for a reason. Ever since I first heard Lady Gaga and Clarence Clemons perform “Edge of Glory” on American Idol, I have had the song on repeat play on my iPod. It is an excellent song, reminding us how much we will miss Clemons. While I have enjoyed Lady Gaga’s music in the past, her work with Clarence Clemons and the thoughtfulness of the get-well video increased my respect for her. I guess sometimes one’s 70+ year-old mom knows more than one’s hip young friends.
Last night, I was working late when the news broke about Clarence Clemons passing away. I already had a Clemons-related post about his most recent work ready to run but instead pushed that post back to pay tribute to the Big Man with the video of “Paradise by the C,” one of the rare instrumental songs in the Springsteen canon. I was going to leave it at that, as there are several excellent articles out there about Clemons, but I will share one memory. (The other Clemons-related post will run in a few days).
After I left work last night, I flipped around the New York radio stations to hear some songs by the E Street Band, finally hitting on one playing a block of songs that featured Clemons. When I got home and parked my car, I sat in the car with the engine off, listening to the radio play “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and “Backstreets.” But when the radio station began playing “Jungleland,” I had to turn it off because I could not hear that song so close to the news of the Big Man’s passing.
Like many people, “Jungleland” is one of the first things I think of when I think of Clemons. It is off Born to Run, my favorite album. The Born to Run LP is one of the few physical albums from my youth that I still own due to space limitations as I converted to CDs and then MP3s. Hopefully, my sister is not reading this post, as I obtained the album pictured at the top when I borrowed it from her more than three decades ago. The album has great music and that iconic cover of Bruce and Clarence that is a photo of human connection. As Springsteen once noted, “When you open [the album cover] up and see Clarence and me together, the album begins to work its magic.”
Parody is flattery.
The album has been there for me through many periods of my life. While I was in school, I listened to “Born to Run” right before every exam to psych myself up. There were times when I was angry and played “Thunder Road” just to sing along to the line, “it’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to win.” If you cut me open and look at my soul, you will see every song from Born to Run embedded in there somewhere.
But the reason “Jungleland” stands out for me is because of a concert at Richfield Coliseum outside Cleveland in the early 1980s. It was the first large concert I ever attended, and it would ruin all future non-Springsteen concerts because nothing would ever come close. That night, I was in a transition period of my life from school to a new job, and I was unsure what lay ahead for me. Inside the coliseum, though, I was blown away by the E Street Band, and the moment that capped it all was the sax solo during “Jungleland.” As Clemons blew his horn, the lights hit the crowd and thousands of people stood in unison pumping their fists in time with the music. I know it is cliche and corny, but that one moment signifies the power of rock and roll to me, with a community of people bonding at once, feeling hope, resignation, fear, and defiance all together in our lives. My words cannot capture what I felt then or what I still feel thinking about those minutes. But that is the reason we need music — to capture those feelings we cannot describe in words.
And so, last night, I could not listen to “Jungleland,” knowing that the man who played the saxophone that night was now dead. Unfortunately, I have lost track of the close friends who were with me at the concert that night. Yet, Clemons and the band have stayed with me through the years. I had never met Clemons and did not know him personally, so it may be foolish to mourn someone others would label “a stranger” when there are so many good people who die every day. But my connection to Clemons is a bond with the human community where even in our differences, we remain connected. At least it was for that July night in Ohio, many years ago. And I still felt that connection with the man who died last night. Thank you Clarence.
, featuring Jakob Dylan, Paul Westerberg, Chris Isaak, and Billy Corgan. While it has been a long time since I listened to new music by him, I am still fond of several of his classic songs from earlier in his career. I remember watching his television show, and of course, he was in the original True Grit. So, our wishes and prayers go out to him and his family through this time in his life.
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