Morpheus by Patricia Barber
Seeing Aguirre today was interesting, though I think I will save my comments until after I've thought about it a little more and given some chance for Herzog & Ebert to speak. The thing I noticed most about the screening was the way the audience seemed to think they were so superior to the characters in the film and through this very mechanism are repeating the errors of the characters in the film. Aguirre is about would-be Spanish conquerers searching for El Dorado on the Amazon and slowly going insane. It may not sound like it has a lot in common with our lives, but a sense of moral superiority pervades the group and ultimately leads them to their doom. I found this attitude on the part of the audience incredibly grating and spent most the film imaging it was actually science fiction occurring on another planet to help me acclimate myself to the material. [Further thoughts have been moved to a separate entry.]
Finished Moral Clarity this morning (which may have made me extra sensitive to these attitudes) and I will also have a lot to say about that in due course. However, it's late so I will capture the following before it escapes me. The following song has totally insinuated itself on me and I thought I would provide a few links re: provenance (at least the way I hear it) before I go to bed:
Morpheus by Patricia Barber
Downright tired in this winter white
Though my best sleep is dressed in black
Ample hours to dream, still I lack
Repose, and wander through the night
A drink or two, blackjack straight through
Till dawn, ever unrequited love
Nothing brings peace, Heaven above
Send Morpheus to me, for I am due
Will you sing softly? Will you keep
Watch as the light begins to wane?
Steadfast and sweet, will you remain
God of my dreams, and let me sleep?
Barber's Morpheus, with its one-note counterpoint on bass, reminded me of Miles Davis' Someday My Prince Will Come an album that drove me nuts when I was a little girl because it wasn't the cartoon-voiced Snow White I expected; nevertheless it stuck with me like a splinter under the skin that is eventually absorbed. I can hardly remember hearing it and being annoyed it wasn't something else. These days it would be the Disney princess version that would grate.
And I also hear hints of Khatchaturian's Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia in the piano turns, which may sound as though I'm reaching, but every time I listen to the song it really stands out of me. (This piece has been used in movies a lot. My favorite use is in the fantasy ballet in Hudsucker Proxy, a film which also makes use of Katchaturian's other famous piece Sabre Dance.)
The rest of the Barber album (which I randomly picked up in the library) is okay, but this song is the one that really gets to me. The album as a whole does focus (very loosely) on modern-mythological themes, but also the theme of unrequited love, which had never occurred to me (though obvious) as a through-theme in the metamorphosis.
Finished Moral Clarity this morning (which may have made me extra sensitive to these attitudes) and I will also have a lot to say about that in due course. However, it's late so I will capture the following before it escapes me. The following song has totally insinuated itself on me and I thought I would provide a few links re: provenance (at least the way I hear it) before I go to bed:
Morpheus by Patricia Barber
Downright tired in this winter white
Though my best sleep is dressed in black
Ample hours to dream, still I lack
Repose, and wander through the night
A drink or two, blackjack straight through
Till dawn, ever unrequited love
Nothing brings peace, Heaven above
Send Morpheus to me, for I am due
Will you sing softly? Will you keep
Watch as the light begins to wane?
Steadfast and sweet, will you remain
God of my dreams, and let me sleep?
Barber's Morpheus, with its one-note counterpoint on bass, reminded me of Miles Davis' Someday My Prince Will Come an album that drove me nuts when I was a little girl because it wasn't the cartoon-voiced Snow White I expected; nevertheless it stuck with me like a splinter under the skin that is eventually absorbed. I can hardly remember hearing it and being annoyed it wasn't something else. These days it would be the Disney princess version that would grate.
And I also hear hints of Khatchaturian's Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia in the piano turns, which may sound as though I'm reaching, but every time I listen to the song it really stands out of me. (This piece has been used in movies a lot. My favorite use is in the fantasy ballet in Hudsucker Proxy, a film which also makes use of Katchaturian's other famous piece Sabre Dance.)
The rest of the Barber album (which I randomly picked up in the library) is okay, but this song is the one that really gets to me. The album as a whole does focus (very loosely) on modern-mythological themes, but also the theme of unrequited love, which had never occurred to me (though obvious) as a through-theme in the metamorphosis.