One of my very favorite scenes in just about any movie comes at the end of Woody Allen's "Manhattan." I'm sure you've seen it, but take a look anyway.
Prior to that scene, I had never heard "Potato Head Blues." So for that alone, I am grateful.
I don't know what it is about lists that we all find so fascinating. Top Tens. Best This. Worst That. They are obviously fun to compile. (And probably less fun to read.) But this list, Woody Allen's reasons why life is worth living is particularly wonderful, especially in the context of the film. It's just the right length, though I wouldn't have minded hearing a few more
I'm going to limit my choices to music and film, but if you'd like to share something else, you are welcome to. God knows I could do this all day and I just might continue to add as the week goes on.
Maybe we can all discover something.
The scene in "Rear Window" when Raymond Burr catches on to Grace Kelly, specifically what occurs below from 2:46 - 2:53.
Buddy Rich's drum solo in the "West Side Story" medley from Sinatra's "Concert For The Americas."
Todd Rundgren's "The Verb To Love."
The coda from "Layla."
Every second of Peter Lorre's screen time in "Casablanca."
(Sorry, couldn't find a clip.)
There...I've started it.
just one thing about Woody Allen's list: apparently, it was an oversight on Allen's part, but what a great indication about how self-involved both he (as confirmed by his real-life actions) and his character are: how, when making a list of the great things in your life, especially when you mention your girlfriend, do you leave out your kid?
ReplyDeleteYou posted that Buddy Rich clip awhile ago and it changed my understanding of the universe. I didn't realize just how good he was until then. It is utterly astonishing. As you pointed out, it isn't just the solo, it's his driving the band as well.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note I've come to feel sorry for the Stones in that Keith's "Life" has finally caught up with him. A big reason they didn't pilfer their catalog for interesting choices is apparently because Keith's memory ain't up to it.
Okay … I’ll give this a very “off the top of my head” try.
ReplyDeleteI can’t figure out how to find clips I want so you’ll have to live with my limited descriptive powers.
I don’t want to compete here with people far more knowledgable about music but I always figured if one could write and perform a song like Nick Lowe’s What’s So Funny one could die happy. A perfect song.
Now … three movie / TV moments and three Toronto moments:
There is a scene in Bang The Drum Slowly where the Robert De Nero character tries to catch a simple pop up and can’t. In that moment he knows, his team mates know and we know he is dying -- nothing is said.
There is an episode of the TV show Cheers where Coach’s daughter is trying to tell her father that she has to settle for a crappy man because she isn’t pretty enough. She yells at him something like “look at me, not like a father looks at a daughter but as a man looks at a woman” and he looks her in the eye, stutters and says “I never realized how much you look like your Mother” and then together they say “And she was a woman uncomfortable with her beauty.”
And showing I don’t just go for the tear jerkers …
There is a scene in a Simpson’s episode where Sideshow Bob steps on a rake and it smacks him in the face. He steps on a second, then a third, … and just when the joke is getting really tired he steps on another rake and it turns into the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
And from the Toronto tourist office:
The outdoor skating rink at Harbourfront Centre is both the coolest place to skate -- right on the lake, you can pretend you are skating on the frozen harbour -- and it attracts the whole face of Toronto -- every size, shape, colour, language, skill, … Magic!
Eating a Toronto street hot dog -- grilled with toasted bun and topped with mustard, chopped olives and corn relish. Add a can of Root Beer and I'm a happy boy.
The Christmas morning party at the Jet Fuel Coffee Shop -- totally crazy, totally cool and so much fun!
Lots of other topics I could try but I’ll leave it at that.
Funny … just going through this exercise makes me feel better.
Thanks Sal!
This list is going to keep changing, but to start (aside from my wife and daughter):
ReplyDelete1) The opening riff to The Weight (and the rest of the song as well).
2) a warm summer afternoon, field level seats at a baseball game
3) the stateroom scene in "The Night at the Opera"
4) Mel Torme singing to Kramer in Seinfeld
5) Live Bruce, but really anything Bruce
6) a warm misty day in Portland
7) the waves at Jones Beach
8) a front porch swing
9) milkshakes and fries
10) the ukulele in my hands
11) a painfree day
12) and I know this is going to sound really soggy and brown-nosy, but Sal and his blog
13) more to come, I'm sure.
1. Chaplin's nonsense song in Modern Times; the first time his voice is heard in the talkie era, it's in gibberish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0daS_SDCT_U
ReplyDelete2. The ending montage in Frequency - Dennis Quaid playing baseball with his son now that history's proper time line has been restored. Runner up: the "Wanna have a catch" line at the end of Field of Dreams.
3. The lead break in September Gurls
4. Wally Bryson's chord voicings in "Go All The Way"
5. Nilsson's burp leading into "At My Front Door" from Nilsson Schmilsson
6. Bugs Bunny vs Rocky in "Racketeer Rabbit"
7. New York pizza
8. Ignatius Reilly's valves
9. The frottoir
10. Bridge pickups
11. I'll think of more
should be "A Night at the Opera," of course.
ReplyDelete14) a great copy editor
Off the beaten path and much less sincere, but this scene of Al Pacino dancing in a gay bar in Cruising never fails to bring a smile to my face:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR7y7g8h1y4
As does this baby trying to stay awake, go figure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCQpjUrCe8
Wally Bryson, that was a gamechanger.
ReplyDelete1. The monologue in the bar in "Wings of Desire."
2. The Gnarley Barley, south Orlando FLA
3. Spencer Hall, the best writer on the internets (everydayshouldbesaturday.com)
4. Humongous dollar record bins (Cactus Records and Sound Exchange, Houston TX)
5. "City Girl" from Lost in Translation
6. the early Miyazaki films
7. finding new cheeky novelists (lately, Nick Harkaway)
8. Ken Burns' "Jazz"
9. listening to Jackie McLean talk in the last chapters of Ken Burns' "Jazz"
10. Flora Purim's "Stories to Tell," the album that made me like jazz
RE: JayeS Semm. yes. that scene in cheers is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteand i have to go with the marx brothers, at least through day at the races.
william faulkner, the way he not only was brilliant but could divine or control the rhythm of my thoughts, so it is less like reading than living.
reet petite by jackie wilson
a lover's question---clyde mcphatter
walking on sunshine---katrina and the waves
that run from beggar's banquet through exile
i've just seen a face
ticket to ride
box of rain---i want this played when my ashes are released somewhere beautiful
spirit in the night
casablanca---the whole damn thing
the scarecrow's song and dance in the wizard of oz
i can see so much by the rev. cleophus robinson
my favorite things---any of the long coltrane versions
daltrey's scream in won't get fooled again
mississippi, red river shore, trying to get to heaven---did this dylan guy do anything when he was young?
section V of East Coker
the san juan skyway in colorado
london calling
astral weeks
you know what they're talking about
the hoh river valley in olympia national park.
the woods---that last freed up and freeing s-k album
plundered my soul---because mick almost made up for 30 years of being annoying
a 90-second call about a court decision with a client whose convictions i got reversed (and who i think was innocent). 90 seconds cause he was crying and i was barely holding on.
oregon---pretty much the whole state, except the snobs, rich and thrift store.
brilliant disguise
southside johnny
franco
etoile de dakar
john havliceck
libra and falling man, delillo makes beauty in telling of tragedy
all those colors at the end of apocalypse now---or maybe i was just really high that year.
musee de beaux arts and the fall of icarus both
that sal made me think about the fact that i too often forget there's a lot of great things in a tough world
Here's a clip...Lorre/Bogart
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I4NOPnyUjs
The spirit of goofiness, as seen here in this video of three guys sailing a bouncy castle across a lake in Italy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aItZLhS0mAU
A quick six-pack, in no particular order:
ReplyDeleteThe Princess Bride, especially the sword fight at the top of the Cliffs of Despair.
Bruce live at Winterland, 1978.
Animaniacs singing Schnitzelbank, the international friendship song.
It's Too Late to Stop Now
Dancing at the Fais-Do-Do stage at Jazzfest.
Opening Day in baseball.
I used to make lists like this, but the more I think about it the less I can narrow it down.
ReplyDelete1) Being alive with my faculties intact.
2) Stringed instruments, especially guitars.
Delete3) Drums.
Bobby Strickland's sax solo on "Hawking"
ReplyDeleteThe first few piano notes of Nina Simone doing "I Got It Bad"
Big Al's guitar solo on "Immortal for A While"
A big flock of geese overhead, honking away
A long hot shower on a cold winter day
Cory McAbee's "The American Astronaut," which I watched twice more over the holidays. Currently the greatest film ever. Everything about it is amazing, a low budget masterpiece full of incredible songs.