and the Oscar goes to...

So this Sunday is it. The culmination of movie awards season. Zee Oscars.

With the exception of 2007 (when I was stuck toiling away on a cruise ship) I've sat through the 4+ hour marathon that is the Oscars every year since 2001. I don't ogle the fashion. I just love to see the show. See the first time winners struggle to find the words...see the smug previous winners act as though they walk on water. Its a great time.

This year Hugh Jackman is hosting. Expect him to sing. And dance. and crack jokes given to him by funnier people (I heard Ricky Gervais gave him some material). I will be satisfied if he throws at least one of his former co-stars under the bus (I'm rooting for Christian Bale jokes, but I'll bet on Nicole Kidman jokes).

Its killed me that since I began to gobble up every bit on online Oscar buzz, I've not worked in an office that has an Oscar pool. I'm convinced I would clean up.

Anyway here are my guesses for each of the awards to be handed out on Sunday:

Lets start out with the three categories that absolutely no one cares about except for the nominees. You'd be better off picking the over/under on how far from the stage the eventual winners will be seated.

My predicitions for winners will be in bold (EDIT: I just realized that the bold doesn't show up well at all against the black background, so I'm going to change the color of the my picks to red as well as keep them bold). The films I've actually seen are designated with a "-"

Best Short Film, Live Action
Nominees:

Auf der Strecke (On The Line)(2007): Reto Caffi
Manon sur le bitume (Manon on the Asphalt)(2007): Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont
New Boy (2007): Steph Green, Tamara Anghie
Grisen (The Pig) (2008): Tivi Magnusson, Dorthe Warnø Høgh
Spielzeugland (Toyland) (2007): Jochen Alexander Freydank

At the 2004 Oscars, one of the nominees was a film called Most. It was co-written/produced by one William Zabka, 80's high school bully extraordinaire. Alas the former Cobra Kai could not take it down, and that's the most exciting this category has ever been.




Spielzeugland (Toyland) is about the Holocaust. Ship it. Print.

Best Short Film, Animated
Nominees:

La Maison en Petits Cubes (Pieces of Love): Kunio Kato
Ubornaya istoriya - lyubovnaya istoriya (Lavatory Lovestory) (2007): Konstantin Bronzit
Oktapodi (2007): Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand
-Presto (2008): Doug Sweetland
-This Way Up (2008): Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes

Presto was the Pixar short that ran before Wall*E. These used to be money, but they haven't won since For the Birds in 2002 (it ran before Monsters Inc.). Got to peep This Way Up on iTunes last month, and I'm going on a limb for this one.

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Nominees:

The Conscience of Nhem En (2008): Steven Okazaki
The Final Inch (2008): Irene Taylor Brodsky, Tom Grant
Smile Pinki (2008): Megan Mylan
The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306 (2008): Adam Pertofsky, Margaret Hyde

Haven't seen any of these, but my pick is a description of the assassination of MLK from someone who was on the titular balcony. If its halfway well shot its in the bag.

Best Documentary, Features
Nominees:

The Betrayal - Nerakhoon (2008): Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath
Encounters at the End of the World (2007): Werner Herzog, Henry Kaiser
The Garden (2008/I): Scott Hamilton Kennedy
-Man on Wire (2008): James Marsh, Simon Chinn
Trouble the Water (2008): Tia Lessin, Carl Deal

Man on Wire is killing at every major award show. Trouble the Water is the one on this list I most want to see (I ♥ you NOLA). And I just received Encounters at the End of the World from Netflix yesterday (if its even half as good as Herzog's last documentary Grizzly Man, I will be satisfied.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Nominees:

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008)(Germany)
Entre les murs (The Class)(2008)(France)
Revanche (2008)(Austria)
Okuribito (Departures)(2008)(Japan)
Vals Im Bashir (Waltz with Bashir)(2008)(Israel)

Its a close race b/t The Class and Waltz with Bashir. The Class won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. I picked the one that one the Golden Globe (not that those awards have ANY bearing on these), but the trailer for Bashir is much cooler.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Nominees:

Bolt (2008): Chris Williams, Byron Howard
-Kung Fu Panda (2008): John Stevenson, Mark Osborne
-WALL·E (2008): Andrew Stanton

I subscribe to the argument that Wall*E was very much in the running for a Best Picture nomination, so this category is no contest (I would have given the noms for the Reader and Frost/Nixon to Wall*E and the Dark Knight).

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
-The Dark Knight (2008): Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin
-Iron Man (2008): John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, Shane Mahan

Actually a tougher category to call despite there being so few nominees. The Dark Knight featured more practical effects than CGI so that rounds out the bottom. It becomes a choice b/t a movie driven by effects (Iron Man) and one that depends on them heavily but to a subtle result (Button). I'm going with the Forrest Gump rip-off.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Nominees:

-The Dark Knight (2008): Richard King
-Iron Man (2008): Frank E. Eulner, Christopher Boyes
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Tom Sayers
-WALL·E (2008): Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood
-Wanted (2008): Wylie Stateman

I love how every awards predictor has to define this category along with the other. Sound editing aka Sound design. Its all about creating sounds. I gotta go with the those cute robots.

Best Achievement in Sound
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten
-The Dark Knight (2008): Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
-WALL·E (2008): Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt
-Wanted (2008): Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

Achievement in Sound aka Sound "Mixing." Its all about balancing your noise with your score, and your dialogue. Usually I'd pick the Sound categories to go to the same film, but I gotta go w/ TDK. And I think this is the last category I'll be picking Slumdog Millionaire to lose.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Nominees:

-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman, Gulzar("Jai Ho")
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman, Maya Arulpragasam("O Saya")
-WALL·E (2008): Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman("Down to Earth")

Don't understand why Bruce Springsteen's song from The Wrestler didn't make the cut here. But Early on it looked like that lovely (see also putrid) song from Bolt by Miley Cyrus & John Travolta was going to be in the running. Now I know this category allows for incredible statements like "Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini never won Oscars, but Eminem and Three Six Mafia have." But having to even think much less say Miley Cyrus Oscar winner makes me dry-heave. This song and its corresponding dance number were awesome.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Alexandre Desplat
-Defiance (2008): James Newton Howard
-Milk (2008): Danny Elfman
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): A.R. Rahman
-WALL·E (2008): Thomas Newman

Its a travesty that Howard and Zimmer got snubbed here for their incredible work in The Dark Knight, but this award has always belonged to Slumdog Millionaire.

Best Achievement in Makeup
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Greg Cannom
-The Dark Knight (2008): John Caglione Jr., Conor O'Sullivan
-Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008): Mike Elizalde, Thomas Floutz

This one gets tough b/c every single one of these movies mixes CGI w/ extensive makeup. I can't give it to TDK, solely b/c of The Joker, and I think Brad Pitt is more CGI-ed than he is made up. Perelman sat in that makeup chair for four hours each day to become Big Red.

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Nominees:

Australia (2008): Catherine Martin
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Jacqueline West
The Duchess (2008): Michael O'Connor
-Milk (2008): Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road (2008): Albert Wolsky

Could go to Button, but The Duchess plays like a period piece fashion show.

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Nominees:

-Changeling (2008): James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
-The Dark Knight (2008): Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando
The Duchess (2008): Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway
Revolutionary Road (2008): Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt

AKA...best production design. I think TDK could upset Button here, but I felt like they used practial locations more often than "constructing their set," and Button recreated several different periods and places as it moved through history.

Best Achievement in Editing
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
-The Dark Knight (2008): Lee Smith
-Frost/Nixon (2008): Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill
-Milk (2008): Elliot Graham
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Chris Dickens

Slumdog took the corresponding guild award (ACE), and I noticed the editing choices more in this one. I felt that Button could have been cut better, but I wouldn't be surprised if TDK gets a pity win here in response to its Best Picture snub.

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:

-Changeling (2008): Tom Stern
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Claudio Miranda
-The Dark Knight (2008): Wally Pfister
-The Reader (2008): Roger Deakins, Chris Menges
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Anthony Dod Mantle

Again going with the guild winner, Although Pfister's chances have signicant traction with TDK. I think its a crime that Roger Deakins will likely get forgotten in this category. The Reader is not his best work, but after eight nominations he should have won by now.

Now into the big ones...writing, acting, directing, and the big chalupa...


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Nominees:

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Eric Roth, Robin Swicord
-Doubt (2008/I): John Patrick Shanley
-Frost/Nixon (2008): Peter Morgan
-The Reader (2008): David Hare
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Simon Beaufoy

If this goes any other way you'll probably be able to fly a plane in my mouth.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominees:

-Frozen River (2008): Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008): Mike Leigh
-In Bruges (2008): Martin McDonagh
-Milk (2008): Dustin Lance Black
-WALL·E (2008): Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon

This category ends up being a huge consolation prize for the second-best Best Picture nominee in many years (see Diablo Cody for Juno, or Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation) so that's why I think Milk has the edge. In Bruges & Wall*E are gaining ground, but I don't think they'll pull the upset.

Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:

-Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
-Stephen Daldry for The Reader (2008)
-David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
-Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon (2008)
-Gus Van Sant for Milk (2008)

Nolan not getting a nomination here was a big surprise. But Boyle is the clear winner. Kinda surprising that this is Fincher's first nomination (for his second-worst movie so far imho).

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

-Amy Adams for Doubt (2008/I)
Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
-Viola Davis for Doubt (2008/I)
-Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
-Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler (2008)

This category was all but won by Winslet for the Reader, and they threw her in the bigger category. And now Cruz is the frontrunner. Some are picking Davis to pull a Judi Dench (winning for a perf with such little screentime) but I don't think thats possible for a first-time nominee (Dench had lost in the previous year to Helen Hunt).

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

-Josh Brolin for Milk (2008)
-Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder (2008)
-Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt (2008/I)
-Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008)
Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road (2008)

This is surest bet all night. What you should take bets on is who gets to accept the award on his behalf. Ledger's dad? His three-year-old daughter? Nolan?... If someone else actually wins, they will have the inside track on the most awkward acceptance speech in Oscar history.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:

Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married (2008)
-Angelina Jolie for Changeling (2008)
-Melissa Leo for Frozen River (2008)
-Meryl Streep for Doubt (2008/I)
-Kate Winslet for The Reader (2008)

Sixth time's the charm for Winslet. She's the frontrunner for the first time. Hopefully the bad press the movie is getting doesn't hurt her campaign. I think Melissa Leo will steal enough votes from Meryl to ship it to Kate.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:

-Richard Jenkins for The Visitor (2007/I)
-Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon (2008)
-Sean Penn for Milk (2008)
-Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
-Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (2008)

This is the toughest one to call. Penn and Rourke are literally neck and neck. In the end I think Rourke elevated his character more than Penn. I could see someone else playing Harvey Milk, but no one else could be Randy "The Ram." I say that all the old Academy voters who go mushy for biopic leads will split their votes between Penn and Langella, and this will clear the way for Rourke to snag the statue.

And finally...
Best Motion Picture of the Year

-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008): Ceán Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall
-Frost/Nixon (2008): Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Eric Fellner
-Milk (2008/I): Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks
-The Reader (2008): Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris
-Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Christian Colson

Slumdog is a juggernaut very similarly to what Return of the King was in 2004 (although a clean sweep is highly unlikely). Now that they finally named the nominees for producing The Reader, the nomination makes since. Both Minghella and Pollack, Oscar darlings died while this movie was in production. This nomination is their subtle curtain call.

OK so that's done... many thanks to info I've gathered all over the web most notably at The Envelope: The LA Times Awards Insider, The Oscar Warrior at Comingsoon.net, and Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon.

my songbook Christmas (and possibly final) edition

So a few weeks ago my hard drive crashed and I've busy dealing with getting that solved. I stand by my Macintosh, as the process for getting the computer service was quick and easy. It would have been even smoother if I lived close to a licensed Mac computer center, and didn't have to ship my computer off to get worked on. Since I've gotten it back, I've been sorting through it as if it were a new computer, resetting all my preferences, address books, and bookmarks. So I've given myself less free time to write.

In other news, I've pretty much decided to can posting these entries on Myspace. I've set Facebook Notes to import directly from this site, and its no secret that I've preferred Facebook to Myspace. The inital import sparked some light conversation based on my previous songbook entry and I was intrigued enough to reread some of my past entries. Truth be told, I've grown tired of the theme, and I imagine this will be the last of these entries...Also Oscar season is very much upon us, and I intend to at least dedicate one serious blog entry into discussing the movie awards season.

And it just so happens that the song I've chosen provides a nice bookend based upon my first songbook subject so here we go.

This year I've been wearing out the Christmas music ever since the first of the month. I've got a solid list of about 150 songs pumping on random. The list is dominated by holiday favorites and classics, with an occasional new Christmas song or creative re-imagining of a classic. So I thought it would nice to talk about what I consider to be my favorite Christmas song.

So without further ado:

"Hallelujah, (Chorus) from Handel's Messiah" performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir"



I was mildly tempted to focus on one of the non-traditional songs that is slowly gaining ground on my Christmas song ranking list (like Rilo Kiley's Xmas Cake or Sufjan Stevens' "That Was the Worst Christmas"), but Christmas is all about tradition, and this ripping choral number has it in spades.

And being that the first song I wrote about was Hallelujah, this makes sense too.

The Hallelujah chorus concludes the second of three acts in George Frideric Handel's Messiah oratorio composed in 1741(thank you Wikipedia). I can't remember a time in my life when I recalled ever hearing any other part of Handels masterpiece, and I can say with some confidence that I don't care to, as the chorus stands well alone.

So you may wonder why I didn't chose a more popular carol-friendly tune like Jingle Bells? Well the Hallelujah resonates with me on a couple of different levels.

First, this song is best heard sung by a choir, with proper direction/orchestration. The different vocal sections of the choir are called upon throughout the song. Its simply a very best "showing-off" of what a well-directed choir is capable of. Another great holiday staple that accomplishes this (and also one of my faves) is Carol of the Bells. Its almost like a structured and and refined version of singing in "rounds" like you would do at summer camp, with different groups of campers staggering their belting of "Row Row Row Your Boat" so that as you sing it sounds like their is an echo.

I specifically remember attempting to sing along to the Hallelujah chorus at the tail end of the service of Lessons of Carols run by one Marc F. Cheban at St. Andrews. I hung in the back with the regular choir, and attempted to chime in with the bass singers intoning "And he shall reign for ever and ever." So I suppose this song will always remind me of that.

The words are nothing particularly earth-shattering. Much of the lyrics are extrapolated from the bible (Revelations actually), but I easily get lost in this song. Yeah maybe they're a bit repetitive, but hey the delivery is spirited.

So no your average caroler will not be attempting this ditty on your front door, but there is no shortage of recordings of the this masterpiece to sate yourself with during the holidays. For my money Christmas music doesn't get much better.

I would love to hear what some other peoples favorite holiday songs are so comment away (I love when I assume people actually read these).

my songbook pt. 5

"Tango de Roxanne" - Ewan McGregor, José Feliciano & Jacek Koman from "Moulin Rouge" (2001)

I would say I am a little guarded about my affinity for musicals. To be blunt...its not very heterosexual. I have received quite a bit of flack from some friends, one in particular (James) for being adamant that I enjoy most forms of musicals. It seems strange given that I this a recent trend. I wouldn't say that I was decidedly anti-musical in high school, but my enjoyment of all things Fosse, Minielli, etc. wasn't at its current level.

I dug our school's production of Godspell, Me Me in St. Louis, and The Sound of Music, but it wasn't until very late in the year when my roommate Pedro and I got into a very deep Rocky Horror Picture Show rut. Pedro was the only male student at our school that was out of the closet, and his introducing me to Richard O'Brien's tranny masterpiece was the caboose to the yearlong train of education of all things rainbow. While Pedro pined for the Adonis-inspired Rocky, I oogled the youthful Susan Sarandon. I fell for her hardcore when i peeped he in Bull Durham (A cougar like her with a religious devotion to baseball...oh yeah), so the fifteen-years-younger version in her underwear was an easy sell.

Its staggering to think about how cloaked in ignorance about that lifestyle. There's no one in my life to blame for that, save for a lack of real exposure. Its that same cloak of ignorance that allows for horrible things like Prop 8 to pass even the most liberal of states. Yeesh...lets nip that political rant in the bud shall we.

I took my brother's friend Jenny to see Moulin Rouge in the theater in the summer of 2000. I had a thing for her (redhead, what do you expect), she had one for my brother, he had one for her younger sister (at least I think so; I could be completely fabricating that entire love trapezoid--I destroyed plenty of brain cells that summer). This was both our first and last date. I was transfixed by every bit of celluloid that night. As I began to gush about the magic we had just witnessed leaving the theater, I was stopped dead in my tracks as Jenny soundly denounced the film as weird. She didn't like it, didn't get it. Needless to say I found less and less attractive about her.

Moulin Rouge is this wonderful postmodern musical, that is a fusion of three distinct old style operas (La Traviatta, La Boheme, and Orpheus in the Underworld), set at a brothel in turn-of-the- (19th) century France. The rub on that period setting is that the film's songs (save one original "Come What May") are simply re-interpretations of popular songs throughout history, most having to do with love. Setting the film in 1899, allows its hero Christian (played by Ewan McGregor) to appear stunningly innovative as the original writing that he pimps are in fact a Greatest hits from popular music and musicals. When he belts out the classic sound of music line "The hiiillls are allive with sound of muuuuussssic!" that stops the bohemians dead in their tracks, I nearly died laughing at the genius of that moment. So many of this films musical cues elicited this sort of response, I panic that I may have made a hasty decision.

Perhaps I should have chosen to feature this entire soundtrack. I could wax on for quite a while on so many of these tracks (some more than others) Here's a complete list of tracks for the film, and quickly where I see the discussion heading in each case:

1. Nature Boy - David Bowie -- Ziggy himself doing a rendtion of a Nat King Cole classic...some great levels to explore there

2. Lady Marmalarde - Christina, Pink, Mya, Lil' Kim, Missy Elliott -- the pop sensation spawned by the film; its seems so disconnected from the film when I think of it now.

3. Because We Can - Fatboy Slim -- would devolve quickly into a dicussion of his uber cool "Weapon of Choice" video with Christopher Walken, which would segway not so subtley into me just needing more cowbell (its the only solution to my fever)

4. Sparkling Diamonds - Nicole Kidman & Jim Broadbent -- much to be said about the great references to Madonna and Holly Golightly herself

5. Valeria - Rhythm of the Night - Gloria Estfan just won something big right

6. Your Song - Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman -- The second big appearance by Elton john in a film fave of mine in as many years (the first being "Tiny Dancer" in Almost Famous) this coupled with the sweet music videos for "I Want Love" (w/ Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr.) and "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore" (w/ Justin Timberlake before he brought SexyBack) convinced me to purchase the Elton John double disc Greatest Hits album. He ceased to be from that moment the weirdo who did those two songs for the Lion King, and became a musical icon. Weird how my mind works.

7. Children of the Revolution - Bono, Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer -- A T. Rex song. Actually not much here. Believe it or not talking about Bono bores me these days

8. One Day I'll Fly Away - Nicole Kidman -- old Jazz standard by Kidman here

9. Diamond Dogs - Beck -- just really one kickass artist doing his thing. Every album is so different from the last its hard to realize their the same guy. I remember belting out Loser in middle school & grooving to Midnite Vultures in high school, but both those memories are on completely different wavelengths.

10. Elephant Love Medley - Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor -- At the time I could only identify pieces of this roller coaster of homages. To effortlessly glide from KISS to U2 to the Beatles to disco queen Thelma Houston I was impressed as hell. This medley gets at the very postmodern heart of this film. These songs like "Up Where We Belong" and "I Will Always Love You" already exist to evoke certain movie moments (whether it be An Officer and a Gentleman, or The Bodyguard), but Lurhman pilfered them perfectly, to not only recall those emotions, but project his own gravitas on those already in place.

11. Come What May - Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor -- I was miffed during Oscar season that this was not nominated for Best Original Song. It prompted a very close examining of the rules for that an other categories. Because the song was originally written for Romeo + Juliet, it could not qualify for the category for the wholly different movie.

12. El Tango de Roxanne - Ewan McGregor, Jose Feliciano, Jacek Koman -- I'll get there

13. Complainte De La Butte - Rufus Wainwright - My sister recognized his voice, prompted me to gift her his CD, then I heard him sing "Hallelujah," see my first songbook blog for the rest.

14. Hindi Sad Diamonds - Nicole Kidman, John Legizamo, Alka Yagnik -- Ahh the Bollywood-inspired number. Could go any number of ways, including Mira Nair's work, or even Bend it Like Beckham

15. Nature Boy - David Bowie & Massive Attack -- that sets up a wicked tangent on house music

All of these don't even begin to scratch the surface on my initial fascination with Baz Lurhman and his take on Romeo + Juliet. I was so enamored with that world he created. The reason so many of my online login names include the Shakespeare character Mercutio is because of that movie. Harold Perrineau (pre LOST and pre Matrix) created a version of that character that found extremely daring and charismatic. But alas I digress....in a big way....Back to El Tango de Roxanne.

--



"Roxanne" ... Its embarrassing to admit that I never considered what the 1978 Police track was actually about. It took its re-imagining for Moulin Rouge as a tango, for me to recognize that its a song about a French prostitute.

As Satine goes to be the Duke to save the production of Spectacular Spectacular, Christian laments his powerlessness. Jacek Koman (The Unconscious Argentinean) performs a steamy tango with Caroline O'Connor (Nini, Legs in the Air). The resulting dance is cross cut with Satine's "encounter" with the Duke. The Argintinean lays it out for Christian that falling in love with someone who sells intimacy to the highest bidder is path to insanity, for "Jealousy will drive you MAD!"

Two distinct things about this track send chills down my spine. The first is the marked difference between the Argentinean's delivery of this song and Sting's original higher range. What can I say I love a good cover song, particular one that is more of a reinterpretation and not simply a tribute band trying to recreate the original sound.

Secondly is the slow building of drama within the track. The backing begins simply... As the song's momentum builds the vocal focus shifts from the Argintinean to Christian, and the backing, builds and builds. The melancholy felt by Christian and Satine underscored through the song is so achingly palatable. They are torn between wanting their love displayed through their art, or rather in actuality in their very lives.

This scene embodies what is magical about musicals. For so many who scoff at the bright and cheery spectacle of a musical production, it is unfathomable that people are driven by songs in their every action, and it's even more strange that one would let that inner song out, and simply sing to show how they feel.

"People don't just break out randomly into song," is the anti-musical sentiment I've had to contend against for so long. And there's a nugget of truth to that, because most people don't. But the feelings that drive and saturate any music exist within us whether we choose to let feeling erupt from us or not.

This may be why I was first drawn to the darker songs in all musicals like "Tango. My favorite track from Chicago is the self-loathing anthem "Mr. Cellophane" Another track responsible was "I've Seen It All" from Dancer in the Dark. Sadness and inner pain made more sense to be set to music at first. As I came to watch and dissect more musicals (My film class on musicals in college turned out to be one of my favorites) I came to appreciate all aspects of the art form.

I discovered gems like Rent, Mamma Mia!, and Sweeney Todd after college, and loved them.

So I'll guess that the melancholy that eloquently shattered the screen and my senses in "Tango de Roxanne" is responsible for a deep-seeded appreciation of the musical genre. They're a tough sell to much of the movie-going public, but feel renewed with each big studio production that makes it to theater (Even if they make to listen to the terrible vocal stylings of Pierce Brosnan sometimes...for every actor who can't sing there are several that can and thank God they still do.)

my songbook pt. 4

For this installment I'd like to examine someone I consider to be one of the best contemporary female vocalists around...Imogen Heap and her song "Hide and Seek"



My introduction to Imogen Heap was in one of the huge center's to my geekdom in my senior year of college. After my laptop and DVD collection were stolen from my room one fateful Christmas break, I was forced to purchase a new laptop, and I was wooed into the world of Apple, by my friend Ozzie. After having a such a horrible time with my Gateway laptop, my G4 Powerbook was a godsend.

I began to stockpile movie trailers from the Apple website. One of the most impressive was the initial teaser trailer for Zach Braff's indie darling Garden State. With my filmic eye at its zenith from all of my film studies classics, I was wowed by this wordless film trailer that relied solely on its impressive film shots and the haunting Frou Frou track "Let Go." Ozzie laughed in my face when I informed him what I had discovered about Frou Frou following the viewing of the trailer. He informed me that he was aware of the artist before seeing the trailer and geeked out when he heard the song in the theater. He had a play count for "Let Go" in his iTunes over a hundred.

I've largely championed Garden State as being one of my favorite films, but its trendiness has softened some of its largess in my minds eye in the years following its release. Much of its hipness has turned sour due to cliche. More than any of the awards it garnered; I was most satisfied with its Grammy win for Soundtrack Compilation, and I felt that the Frou Frou track had much to do with that.

Zach's music choices were eye-opening to me. I was introduced to artists like The Shins, Zero 7, Iron & Wine, Remy Zero; and I was forced to take a second look at artists like Coldplay and Colin Hay. As I entrenched myself in the films songs I noticed a glaring ommission in the film soundtrack (much like in Dazed and Confused with "Hurricane"). Alexi Murdoch's "Orange Sky" which played over the hamster Jelly's funeral was nowhere to be found. I quickly found that the song was a part of first soundtrack compilation for the TV show "The O.C.", and therefore couldn't be legally included in the Garden State soundtrack.

I had avoided "The O.C." like the plague because it was so immensely popular. But this was now two songs on that first compilation that I really dug (The first being "The Way We Get By" by Spoon, that I had on a mix CD) so I decided to seek out the rest of the compilation. And thus the hook was set, and I was slowly drawn into a cheesy teen soap opera.

I was able to justify my dedication to the show because of the music (damn you Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz, and Alexandra Patsavas). In the second season they introduced a live music venue called The Bait Shop, where they were able to showcase up and coming artists. Here I was introduced to Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers,

Another big player in the second season was none other than Imogen Heap. No longer a part of Frou Frou, her song "Goodnight and Go" was featured early on the show, and garnered a fair bit of mainstream play following the show's airing. Then her song "Hide and Seek" became the centerpiece of the Season 2 season finale, first backing the funeral, and then being called back for the show's cliffhanger open-mouth ending.



They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...and there's no better example than the SNL spoof of that very scene. Because I was such a fan of the show the "Dear Sister" digital short made me laugh out loud.



This track cuts me to my core. Imogen's voice by itself is spectacular. The harmonized vocals seem to be the only thing with which you could logically pair it. This haunting song rises and falls beautifully. I used to associate synthesizers and harmonizers with soulless house music, but this song broke down those prejudices.

But what's most amazing is that Heap produced this whole album "Speak for Yourself" by herself. Dissatisfied with how the previous Frou Frou album was mishandled; she took matters into her own hands, and the result is earth-shattering.

Of course then Zach Braff chose to include "Hide and Seek" in the soundtrack for his next film "The Last Kiss." The film came out two years after the songs release, and it had been almost played to death. While the music on the compilation was stellar again, I was disappointed to be familar with the majority of the artists already. Coldplay, Cary Brothers, Remy Zero, Imogen all made their second Braff appearances. But again there were some musician revelations

Snow Patrol - Chocolate -- the song featured in the trailer...almost engineered to feature heavily in a romantic movie; I've since latched tightly to Snow Patrol
Fiona Apple - Paper Bag -- revitalized an interest in someone I dismissed as a one-hit wonder (when I saw her at Vegoose in 2006 she killed it; a much better perfomer live)
Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk - Paperweight -- Radin I knew through following my Braff appreciation to Scrubs; the real revelation was Fisk, who I remembered vaguely as Sissy Spacek's daughter who was in that terrible Orange County movie with Tom Hanks son. Being the daughter of The Coal Miner's Daughter, the fact she can belt out a tune comes as no surprise, her being a darling redhead is just icing. I've constantly sought out any and all of her music since. She's currently working on her first album, and her singing has appeared in two other films I'm Reed Fish an Penelope)

So the cycle continues...Thanks Imogen I await your new album as well as Schuyler's first.

my songbook, pt. 3

Song #3 makes me a little bit embarrassed, but it represents an important step in my musical journey.

"Callin' Baton Rouge" -- Garth Brooks

When I was younger I would take great pleasure in ragging on my father for his affinity for some country music. He would put on his Tractors CD, and I would roll my eyes as he would bop along with "Baby Likes to Rock It."

It seemed that country music was destined to be shunned forever after it wasn't included in my "high school classic rock musical epiphany." This epiphany was almost single handedly engineered by Geoff Carson, who amassed a nice CD collection by preying on impressionable freshman such of myself, and gently coercing us into joining the BMG music service. Forced to choose 12 CDs at once, broke down my popular music-centric music tastes into the wonderful realms of classic rock. However the walls of ignorance against country music remained high and mighty.

The first concession I would make would be a few years later, in one of many late night discussions with one Oswald Cuervo. My junior year of high school, we logged some several hundred hours of reflection late night on Baum corridor. I've yet to replicate the frequency and depth of our interchanges. No matter what shenanigans we got into we found time for some chatting. Now that he works on the west coast for the other networking giant Facebook, I've all but completely lost touch.

However I digress...one night we discussed music, and I shared my current interest in one Bob Dylan. I was currently listening to his third Greatest Hits compilaton, almost solely for the inclusion of the song Hurricane. Everytime I heard the nearly nine minute song, I was reminded of the scene in Dazed and Confused were Wooderson, Pink, and Mitch walk through the Emporium, and this song backs their slow-motion stroll. Of all the great music in this film, this was my favorite, and yet it was not included on either of the two soundtracks released.

Some of my favorite parts of the song were the violin solos, and Ozzie had recently acquired an electric violin. He fooled around with it in a band (they couldn't decide on a name so they became known as TBA) that won our school talent show. They had huge sound issues and played only DMB cover songs. (Ozzie would go on to play in a band called Mojo Train at college). But that one night Ozzie plugged his violin into my CD player, and riffed along with "Hurricane." I think at that moment I decided that I really dug the violin in a non-classical music sense. So I was prepared to enjoy a bluegrass fiddle. So I was willing to admit I like the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

...

Cut to college...In a whirlwind of events beginning my second semester freshman year, I had gone against my better judgement and joined a fraternity. Not just any frat mind you, but the bastion of Southern Gentlemen, the Kappa Alpha Order. (How I allowed myself to believe that Southern Gentlemen was the proper description for what were actually Good Ole Boys is still baffling to me).

Now these brothers of mine were mostly from Texas and Alabama, and therefore were raised with a healthy dose of country music. Every Friday we would have kegs at the landfill we called our frat house (lovingly termed the KA Mansion). The archaic sound system would blast a mixture of classic rock and country music. As a lowly pledge I had no input into the DJ choices, so I had little recourse but to withstand this barrage of country. Needless to say I lost this war of attrition, much like my friend from high school Birdsey had continually hammered me with his bootleg Phish concert tapes until I actually dug them.

My concessions for country music started small. After hearing Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen so many times, I could barely classify them as country so I began to allow that I enjoyed "Texas country" because the line between Texas country and rock wasn't well defined in my mind. Cory Morrow,

And slowly the other songs that I heard every Friday stopped grating against my eardrums. And late one night when I heard myself belting out the words to "Callin' Baton Rouge" There was now no mistaking it. I knew all the words to a Garth Brooks song. Chris Gaines himself. All the words. Even several cups of keg beer deep. Needless to say...I was a little shocked.

As I came to terms with my light appreciation of country music, I started to explore more and more. This includes finding contemporary gems like Alison Krauss, and fully exploring the catalogs of legends like Johnny Cash. All thanks to Mr. "Friends in Low Places" Brooks.

I can now ridicule with a clean conscience all those lazy people who, when asked to list their favorite bands simply write "anything but country"

You're clearly missing the boat.

my songbook pt. 2

Time for another entry into my own personal songbook/mixtape/blog. Today's song:

"Fell On Black Days" - Soundgarden (1994)



I mentioned in my previous blog that the reason I never heard of Jeff Buckley was because I was too busy listening to Seattle grunge. I must qualify that to recognize that in my middle school days, as these were, my musical scope rarely extended off the Billboard top 100 charts. Its not as if I was a diehard grunge fan.

I listened to the radio. Grunge was all over the radio. I didn't grow my hair long, although I did try to bang my head to Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc. I did occasionally rock some flannel, but it wasn't a daily look. Its a little sickening to think that the only reason I liked grunge music is because so many other people did.

But the truth is...I've made no real music discoveries over my life. Since my iPod dominates my life, I no longer listen to the radio. MTV no longer plays music videos (that I know of) so I can't so easily glean my music from them. There are several musicians that hooked me back in those glory days that I still keep up with when they come out with new albums (side note I'm really digging the new Ben Folds album "Way to Normal"). I've realized now I've become hooked on accompanying music. Music that accompanies TV shows, movies, commercials. So I'm only indirectly choosing the music that I like. I'm thankful for the music supervisors of the world. The Stepanie Savages and Zack Braff's of this world.

What I can take solace in, is that my fandom is only rarely skin deep. Soundgarden's 1994 album Superunknown was hugely successful thanks in most part to its most popular singles "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" Not to bag on those two songs, but most of their weight is based in a hella-creepy music video (that still turns my stomach a little bit) and a kitchen utensil gimmick.

From maybe the second go-round through my cassette, I was certain that "Fell On Black Days" was my favorite track. Chris Cornell's silky voice was most certainly the best of the era (I can't say that without mentioning that Scott Weiland comes in a very close second). This track serves as a ridiculous oppurtunity to show off his terrific range. It opens with that smooth guitar hook by Kim Thayill. For about two-thirds of the song Cornell sings softly yet firmly, but in the last bit he elevates to a controlled scream that still manages to sit under the actual music.

The song was written by Cornell and he describes it as "like this ongoing fear I've had for years...It's a feeling that everyone gets. You're happy with your life, everything's going well, things are exciting - when all of a sudden you realise you're unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared." Reading that quote it suddenly makes sense why I identified with that song so well.

Soundgarden is the one band of that Seattle gringe mid 90's boon whose arch ended abruptly as I moved on to high school. Sure some of the others had bigger stories. Nirvana's lead singer stopped making new music, but new Nirvana CD's continued to come out. It always seemed weird to me that Dave Grohl fronted a popular band after Nirvana...why not stick to drums (maybe thats why I liked Queens of the Stone Age). Scott Weiland has had some trouble keeping out of prison, but he's back with STP. Getting to see them in October 2000 at Voodoo Fest was a special treat. He was clean and they played almost an entirely mid-90's set. My love for Smashing Pumpkins was partially shattered when I discovered Billy Corigan is a really spotty live performer. Pearl Jam wavers in and out of my interest. One good album, a bad one, a good one again; I stopped depending on them, (however Eddie Vedder's score for Into the Wild was amazing).

When the first whiff of the formation of Audioslave, featuring Chris Cornell back in the saddle with Tom Morello and the other parts of Rage Against the Machine, hit me I nearly cried tears of joy. And the marriage of those two rock dynamo's was a smashing success. I enjoyed all three albums they released; however the third was weak enough that it was no surprise that the supergroup wouldn't last too much longer.

I do still find myself longing for the old Soundgarden though. No offense to you and your politics Morello. RATM doesn't occupy the same time in my life as Soundgarden does. I was on the cusp of my musical awakening that I would experience my freshman year of high school. When I learned that I could listen to older music and enjoy it more than the songs on the radio. When I could listen to Led Zeppelin and hear pieces of of contemporary artists.

Listening to "Fell On Black Days" reminds me of time when my tastes were simpler. When all things in my life were simpler.

my songbook pt. 1

So I am currently reading the book Songbook by Nick Hornby. This is the limey bastard that wrote the literary inspirations for About a Boy, Fever Pitch, and most famously High Fidelity. This book is a collection of 31 essays on different popular music songs. In the first essay that is termed the introduction, Hornby describes a spectacular realization regarding why certain important songs are associated with certain feelings and sensations:

"If you love a song, love it enough for it to accompany you throughout different stages in your life, then any specific memory is rubbed away by use."

Not all of the 31 songs he pines about take him back to simply a certain place and time. But that happens for all of us. My father asked me some years ago to make him mix CD with several classic rock songs. As he listened the the finished product he talked about some of the tracks in particular and how they reminded him of his days in high school and so on. I realized that these associations explain my enjoyment of these silly "I love the 80's" shows on VH1. But I digress...back to Hornby's essays.

Some correspond to revelations in his personal and professional life. The end result, this book comes off like a mixtape of essays, much like a compliation lovingly constructed by Hornby's Fidelity character Rob Gordon. I was only about 5 essays into the book, when I thought that I could create a collection within this blog. One that would very much be my own.

I don't know how many songs I will end up featuring (the first shortlist I've compiled features ten songs, I figure I may find about five more). My big fight will be keeping movie chatter out of these blogs. I will try to limit focusing on songs that I have interacted with majorly having to do with movies.

I encourage you who read to comment on the blog...if you have a particular take on the song or the subject on the blog. I would also love to read your own mixtape of songs.

The first song I've decided to talk about is:

"Hallelujah" -- Jeff Buckley

This haunting cover of Leonard Cohen's 1984 song is my favorite version of the song even though its not the first version I ever heard. A quick iTunes search reveals that I have 7 different versions of this song in my collection (of the reported 170 different versions that have been produced. There is one other song in my collection that I have so many versions of...that I will also talk about soon enough.

Hallelujah has come to be known as a soundtrack song. Not a year goes by that it isn't featured in some movie of television show to underscore an emoitional celluloid moment. Its melancholy tone lends it to many emotional scenes to denote depression. Or it can be flipped with certain lyrics like my favorite "I used to live alone before I knew you" or "her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you" to partner with romantic undertones. Even Letterman used it recently in a homage to Paul Newman.

Truth is it is a beautiful song that blipped on my radar because of its use in the movie Shrek. I had recently bought a Rufus Wainwright album for my sister, and was captivated by his vocal ability. I recognized his voice, listening to the song in the film, and sought to learn more about this incredible song.

This was a time in my life when I began to fully utilize the internet to expand my knowledge of the music that intrigued me. A search revealed that this song was in fact written by Leonard Cohen, whose was responsible for another of my favorite songs "Everybody Knows." Thus began my long love affair with cover songs that were better than their orignials.

I was dissatisfied with Cohen's version of the song, but soon discovered that their were many others. Some of them were terrible (Bono's makes my ears bleed), but others like Buckley's were transcendent. Its remarkable when a cover of a good song can make it great or even swallow up the original entirely. Hendrix's take on Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" is leagues better (it blew my mind when I found out that wasn't a Hendrix song). Other times, its a cheap ploy by a struggling artist: Jessica Simpson singing "These Boots are Made for Walking" comes to mind first).

But the reason this song has stayed with me is the ensuing things I found out about Jeff Buckley. An American singer/songwirter whose light was extinguished way too early. His album Grace came out in 1994, when I was too busy listening to Seattle grunge to pay attention to this soft singer's genius. This artist I had never heard of is to this day in the mixtapes and CD players of my idols. His stamp on music grows because he took Cohen's song and elevated it into the stratosphere, so that those who create art (movies, tv, etc.) constantly look to it for an emotional punch.

It reminds me how so many of us long to make an impact on the world, even if its the softest impact imaginable.

...Next song coming soon... :)