8/8/08
SCORING REALITIES
I've often reflected that since what I love film music is that it tends to be inherently dramatic, much of the source of my attraction to it is exactly what many people avoid when listening to music. That's too bad, because every once and a while, you just get perfect matches to what's actually going on.
This morning, for example, I decided out of the blue to listen to David Shire's The Conversation on the bus ride to the train. One of the more tense passages features a distortion of a recording of Shire pounding on the piano... in perfect time to the flashing "Don't Walk" sign. The combination of the portentous music and what is an otherwise pretty banal sight was rather amusing, but it was even more fun when the "Don't Walk" went solid and then the light changed, both in time to sonic changes in the cue.
But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to when I was on the train. The 7 was only running locally, so I had to transfer to an extremely packed E at 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue. The Conversation had ended and I switched over to Jerry Fielding's The Enforcer (what can I say, I'm on a 70s kick). I was stuck in the middle of the car and had to balance myself by pressing my hand against the ceiling of the train car (now there's a concept for the Commuter's Lexicon), which works fine for the most part except if you have an itch on your leg. And I did. Worse, I started getting the itch right where those aleatory pizzicato strings kicked in. You know how hearing running water makes it more difficult to hold one's bladder? That sound just intensified the itch, and I couldn't scratch it without losing my balance. That was a pretty harrowing experience. Luckily the Queens Plaza stop came right before it became unbearable.
THE BLUS
Upcoming Blu-ray releases I'm interested in:
- September 23
- The Godfather Trilogy (already pre-ordered)
- L.A. Confidential October 7
- Young Frankenstein October 21
- Ghostbusters November 11
- Band of Brothers