A Mighty Wind

This is a little known movie by Christopher Guest master of the mockumentary genre. Guest also gave us Best in Show, and This is Spinal Tap among others.

A Mighty Wind is about a reunion concert of 1960s folk singers. A major figure in their careers (producers) dies and the family organizes a memorial concert with some of his favorite and most successful clients. These include The New Main Street Singers, The Folksmen, and Mitch and Mickey.

Keep in mind these artists haven't seen each other in thirty years, or that they weren't even on speaking terms with each other, or members of their own group for a few years.

Mitch and Mickey were the sweethearts of the folk scene, embodying love and romance, and sweetness. Then of course, the relationship exploded. They moved on. Mitch continued making music, but it took a dark turn and eventually Mitch experienced a mental break down. Mickey (a she) eventually got married, and left music behind her....

This is a film about reunions, about music, about friendships, about people. It's fun. And the music was all performed by the actors themselves. I find myself singing the songs throughout the day. The songs are genuinely good songs. It overflows with great writing, fantastic understated acting.

Here's a taste.

The Folksmen (one of them is Chrisopher Guest - both bald and having hair. Over Achiever.)




The New Main Street Singers - with Jane Lynch of Glee, and indie queen Parker Posey. (I just thought what else have I seen her in, oh yeah, Best in Show. She has one of those faces that you've seen somewhere but you don't know where..)



Mitch and Mickey - Eugene Levy of American Pie fame and Catherine O'Hara who everyone will probably recognize as Kevin's Mom in Home Alone.



One of the songs, A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow - a Mitch and Mickey tune - was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song. the Title song A Mighty wind won a Grammy.

I remember gathering around the tv watching PBS broadcast Peter, Paul and Mary concert. indeed every time they were on PBS we gathered around the tv and sang along with them. I remember this. Very vividly. Peter, Paul, and Mary performed at my university some years ago, and my parents were able to go see the trio before Mary died... The day she passed away was a sad day in my house hold.

Man I miss them.



If you watch more of Peter, Paul and Mary, and then watch some of Mitch and Mickey, you'll notice Catherine O'Hara does the Mary Head bob when she sings..... Imitation is the truest form of flattery... :)

Just some music for your to hot Wednesday.

todays poem

I get the Writer's Almanac emailed to me every day. I love it. I send it on to my friend in Scotland who loves it and passes it on. It's a moment of sublimity. Except when it's Emily Dickinson who I really really hate (and so does my friend in Scotland...)

But I do love the Brontes. And today was a Bronte poem. So I am posting here, and then maybe in another post, I'll talk more about the Brontes, because really, what a fantastic group of liberated women for their time. Who all died of Consumption. And got more accomplished at their age than their current day counterparts.

So today's poem. in two formats - print and read aloud by a lovely Scottish actress from my old theater guild back in Glasgow. (I highly recommend checking out the rest of this blog pure dead brilliant. and cool.) Strathclyde Theatre Guild at the Ramshorn Theatre in Glasgow Scotland.

Bruce downie is the one who did the recording work, a true Jack of All Trades that one.

Radio Theatre Group: No Coward Soul is Mine. A poem by Emily Bronte. Pe...: "No Coward Soul is Mine A poem by Emily Bronte Performed by Frankie MacEachen"


No Coward Soul is Mine

by Emily Bronte

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life—that in me has rest,
As I—undying Life—have Power in Thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.

With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou—Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.

the time traveler's wife film vs book

First off, I loved this book. Not as much as i loved Her Fearful Symmetry (by the same author - Audrey Niffenger). I loved that the book was told from Henry's point of view. I loved that we developed the relationship between this man and his future wife (Clare) (depending on his place in time). Sometimes she was a little girl and he helped her with her homework. Other days she was a grown up...

It was just so incredibly fascinating. And heartbreaking all at the same time to see him struggle with what he had to deal with, with never being there, with never being predictable in where he was going to go, or be. Except for the cheat sheet that said every time he showed up...

There were so many points in the book that showed the relationship between the two of them. So many incredible moments. Like their wedding, when Present Henry disappears and Older Henry shows up and marries Clare.

So when I saw that it was going ot be a movie, I was really hopeful. I looked forward to it. Even my husband sat through it.

Now...on to the movie.



That didn't show those moments. (They did show the wedding.)

That told the movie through her point of view, so we got a whiney chick flick with half the depth of the book.

The trailer looks awesome. But it still boils down to a chick flick, that lacks so much depth... There is still so much loveliness. So much beauty, but what made it so unique is diluted....

Rachel Macadams and Eric Bana did all they could with all their combined beauty to save the film. But beauty only goes so far.

i actually turned this off when we watiching it on the dvd. I couldn't make my husband watch it anymore, and I was so upset by what was missing in the film, I couldn't stand to watch it any longer.

This is an example of what could have been great.. and sadly wasn't.

Feel free to double check me.

books into movies - LOTR

With the clock counting down the moments until Harry Potter takes the world by storm for the last time in theatres, thus closing a chapter of what has been ten years of films, and seven enormous books (largely credited with getting kids excited about reading again), I find myself thinking, wow they could have screwed this one up royally. This could have been a disaster.

(ala City of Ember although the trailer looks far more interesting than the book... sorry for that.)



But Harry Potter didn't drop the ball. Yes there were moments of what were they thinking, or complaining about what was left out of the films (Order of the Phoenix especially, but so many other times....), or things not in the books that showed up on screen (the I Killed Sirius Black! Scene in Half Blood Prince) But for the most part, they did a really great job.

(Aside from the whole movie where EVERYONE needed a hair cut - movie four if you're interested.)

This could easily go the way of what was in the movies, and not in the books, and all of that. but I'm going to restrain myself. I promise.

Rather I got to thinking about what books have made the film adaptation jump and managed to live to tell the tale, and what other ones have fallen flat on their faces.


Of course we have Harry Potter...


Lord of the Rings

Fellowship of the Ring




The Two Towers



Return of the King



But really, what about this moment. When Helm's Deep is about to fall. Completely fall. It's just this one group of men who are going to go up against the baddest of bad@$$es, and they're all waiting to die. Brave but scared witless. And a horn sounds. and suddenly, out of nowhere, come the elves - the impossible neutral elves, (like Switzerland or Belgium). But exceptional archers, fighters, and many of them, easily doubling or tripling the number there at Helm's Deep...

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Just what a moment....

Ahh, but do you remember this one?



Really. 1977 The Hobbit. Animated. This thing gave me nightmares. It's because of that movie that I had nightmares of Gollum hissing in the dark at me. People had the bogeyman at night. I had Gollum. (We were literary nerds from a young age.)
Even as I type, I remember this music.

But of course the new Hobbit is coming out in 2012 with Martin Freeman (who plays Watson the BBC Sherlock) as Bilbo. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, are all reprising their roles, Evangeline Lily (Kate Austen from LOST) is playing an elf as well. Along with Bennedict Cummerbatch (Sherlock Holmes from the BBC show Sherlock) is playing Smaug. So I have high hopes for it.