My Beautiful, My Beautiful Balloon

I don't have much else to say other than Disney/Pixar's Up took me up, up and away. Dazzling, stunning, moving, touching...a deft blend of whimsy and poignancy, heartache and life-affirming spirituality...if you're an adult you really don't need the 'just taking the kids' excuse to see this movie (though that was my excuse).

I was impressed by pretty much every aspect of Up, but what especially won me over was the score composed by Michael Giacchino. Listen to 'Married Life', an early piece that underscored a beautiful five minute 'silent sequence' sans dialogue, and established the recurrent musical medody that reverberates from beginning to end:



Later in the film, under another 'silent sequence', Giacchino performs a sparse, sad version of the above tune...which gave me the opportunity to explain variations on a theme in film scoring to my youngest daughter after she exclaimed: "Hey...that sounded the same as before, but different!"



The simple marriage of this melancholy melody with these two very different yet dramatic sequences was so emotionally pure in its aching sincerity, I was genuinely moved while watching...at a cartoon no less!

Oh, and in case I've got you thinking it was all drama all the time... the talking dog with the high squeaky voice killed.

Best film I've seen this year. Giddy Up and go.

Almost Perfect?

William: So, Russell...what do you love about music?
Russell: To begin with...everything.



Best rock n' roll movie ever?

Go...

Any Way The Wind Blows...

...it's another timewaster - a link to a cool list of most excellent song use in movies .




Forty in total, plus some great ones just outside the winners circle...here's the top ten according to the site:

10) "Try A Little Tenderness", Otis Redding - Pretty In Pink

9) "The End", The Doors – Apocalypse Now

8) "Moving in Stereo", The Cars – Fast Times at Ridgemont High

7) “Shout”, Otis Day & the Knights - Animal House

6) “Stuck in the Middle with You”, Stealer’s Wheel – Reservoir Dogs

5) “Tiny Dancer”, Elton John – Almost Famous

4) “Damn It Feels Good 2 Be A Gangsta”, The Geto Boys – Office Space

3) “Twist and Shout”, The Beatles – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

2) “In Your Eyes”, Peter Gabriel – Say Anything

1) “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen – Wayne’s World


Cameron Crowe does it up right with three in the top ten (I did dig that scene in Almost Famous as much as I dug the movie). And Say Anything? Say no more.

I like lists like this. But I did miss seeing any scenes from High Fidelity..like the Beta Band buyers sequence; or Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' screeching in the background as John Cusack battles the hitman in the convenience store they built on top of his childhood home in Grosse Point Blank; or 'Black In Black' shaking the speakers as Jack Black names the bandmembers in School of Rock; or Jason Swartzman sending bees to Bill Murray and starting 'the war' in Rushmore set to The Who's 'A Quick One'.....or in Election, when ....yo, somebody stop me!

Seems like a good topic for Portnoy to weigh in on...maybe he even made some of these happen?

And McGrath keeps his monster post ball rolling with his readers report. We really need to find a destination for all this.

Rock on.

100% Fun....

...we all know many tv shows will end an episode with a montage set to some pop/rock tune - either popular or obscure....or slam into the closing credits with a cool 'story complimentary' track. So yesterday, I'm rooting around in my old cd boxes and come across 'Girlfriend' by Matthew Sweet.

I hadn't heard it in ages but man, it's a great cd.

And while listening to it, I decided almost any track could be used as one of 'those' cool songs to end an episode. But for which show? How about...

Big Love: either 'Holy War' or 'Divine Intervention' could work...perhaps. Or maybe...

Rescue Me: either 'Nothing Lasts' or Looking at the Sun'...

But that got me thinking that pretty much anything by the Waterboys could work for Leary's show. Which led to thinking about music for other shows:

Entourage: either 'Tumbling Dice' or 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' by the Rolling Stones

Deadwood: an obscure accoustic/banjo cover of the Counting Crows 'Round Here'

The Soprano's: 'Locked In the Trunk of a Car' by Tragically Hip

And then I wasted a bunch of time trying to paste in those 30 second music samples of these songs that you can get off Amazon or wherever - with absolutely no luck. I do suck at computers.

At any rate, for a while it was fun....100% Fun (one of Matthew Sweet's followup's to 'Girlfriend')

Try it, you might like it.

Disclaimer: I apologize in advance if any of these shows have already used these songs and I just happened to miss it.