Movies III - Moonstruck

 ASM826 has posted two outstanding westerns, Tombstone and The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Today's selection is a shift in gears from serious, life-and-death issues to light romantic comedy.  Now the term "light romantic comedy" is the kiss of death to some, but there may not be a better example of the genre than Moonstruck.  It was nominated for six Oscars and won three - Best Actress (Cher), Best Supporting Actress (Olivia Dukakis), and Best Original Screenplay.  It was a commercial success, costing $15M (1987 dollars) and grossing $80M. 

It was also a critical success.  Rogert Ebert has it in his "Great Movies" collection.  His TV partner Gene Siskel said that it was the funnoest movie to come out in a long time.  Both had it on their top en lists for films from 1987.  And it's not just funny, it's memorably funny.  The line from this scene - I love ya awful/Aw, that's too bad - is heard often around Castle Borepatch.

Performances are great throughout the entire cast.  John Mahoney (you'll remember him as Frasier Crane's dad) was hilarious as a lecherous professor, and Nicholas Cage showed his funny side throughout the film.  But what strikes me is how brilliant the musical score is.  Yes, the music is about opera, but it is fiendishly difficult to write a score around some of the greatest opera arias ever written.  I posted about this early this year:

Continuing the film soundtrack theme suggested by The Queen Of The World, an interesting compositional challenge was for the 1987 film Moonstruck.  It was a surprise critical and box office success, where the romantic comedy story was hung around some serious classical music (to wit: Puccini's opera La Bohème).  The music he had to compose needed to fit in with and enhance this:



This is one of the most famous arias in history.  How do you top that?  Dick Hyman was trained not only classically but in jazz.  He combined classical/old world themes with light jazz throughout the film score which fit in perfectly with the light romantic comedy.  It's actually quite an achievement, and in fact similar to Puccini's master work: you wouldn't listen to most of the opera bits by itself, but they connect the grand arias.  The theme to the film gives you a distinct flavor of the soundtrack:



The Queen Of The World and I love this film.  It's funny and smart and a great way to fill a cold and rainy winter weekend afternoon.

Or a hot and rainy summer weekend afternoon.  The Queen Of The World and I give this film two thumbs way, way up.

Huey Lewis and The News - One Of They Guys

In this day of Country Pop, where do you go for some real, old school country music?  No fair peeking at the post title.

Huey Lewis and the News is out with a new album, their first in a decade.  The Queen Of The World was a big fan (as was I), and so the Brown Truck of Happiness rolled up to Castle Borepatch with the CD.  It's quite interesting, with rock, jazz, blues, and this throw back to the daya when you actually heard country music in Nashville.

Party on, Huey!

Three minutes of power

A tornado touched down yesterday morning only a mile or two from Castle Borepatch.  Fortunately nobody was killed but there was (as you'd imagine) quite a bit of mayhem.  Falling trees took down power lines and suddenly the Castle was without electricity.  That was a little after 0730 yesterday.  The power was still out late in the afternoon and I began to think about the food in the refrigerators and the chest freezer.  That was an investment I didn't want to replace.

And so I headed off to Orange Big Box Hardware Store and lo to my wondering eyes there was a palate (!) of 6500 W generators.  I gritted my teeth at the price and wrestled one to the car, driving home in the dark.  By the light of the headlights I put the wheels on, filled the crankcase with oil, poured 5 gallons of gas into the tank, and pulled the starter rope.  It barked to life, and the lights on the chest freezer shone once more.

Guess how long it took after that until the power to the neighborhood was restored?  No fair peeking at the post title.

Oh, well.  It's probably not a bad thing to have a generator around.  This is the second tornado we've had in these parts in six months.  Still, I would have liked to enjoy for a little longer the neighbor's envy  of the lights on in the Castle.

Dick Hyman - Theme to Moonstruck

Continuing the film soundtrack theme suggested by The Queen Of The World, an interesting compositional challenge was for the 1987 film Moonstruck.  It was a surprise critical and box office success, where the romantic comedy story was hung around some serious classical music (to wit: Puccini's opera La Bohème).  The music he had to compose needed to fit in with and enhance this:



This is one of the most famous arias in history.  How do you top that?  Dick Hyman was trained not only classically but in jazz.  He combined classical/old world themes with light jazz throughout the film score which fit in perfectly with the light romantic comedy.  It's actually quite an achievement, and in fact similar to Puccini's master work: you wouldn't listen to most of the opera bits by itself, but they connect the grand arias.  The theme to the film gives you a distinct flavor of the soundtrack:



The Queen Of The World and I love this film.  It's funny and smart and a great way to fill a cold and rainy winter weekend afternoon.  This scene contains dialog frequently heard in the halls of Castle Borepatch:



I love ya awful is a line with real staying power.  At least if you're as lucky as I am.

The Calm

It's the end of the year, and at least at Castle Borepatch it's very quiet and peaceful.  Calm.  Looking at the state of the Republic, perhaps it's the calm before the storm.

Democrats seem to be in a big hurry in the Old Dominion state.  Certainly the citizens of that state think so - almost 100 counties have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries.  Senior Democrat politicians are openly musing about calling out the National Guard to confiscate firearms.  I guess we'll see just how serious they are.

Me, I think that the Re-Elect Trump 2020 campaign thanks them for their support.  This seems to be the fastest way on earth to turn a purple state red, if it doesn't start the Electric Boogaloo first.

Meanwhile, impeachment has turned out to be a big Nothingburger farce.  The Senate is waiting impatiently for the Articles of Impeachment, to see if they contain High Crimes and Misdemeanors.  We know what the Senate is ...

SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.

- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

But for now, everything is calm.  Except for the polls, where Trump seems to be surging against each Democratic challenger.  Given what the Democrats have done up until now (when they thought they could bump Trump off the perch) it will be interesting to see what they do around March or so when their front runner begins to emerge and everyone begins to realize that Trump is going to roll to a 35 state landslide.  That will be a new situation for the Republic - an impeached President winning big in the next election.

We've been told for 3 years now that Trump is destroying the norms of our civilized political institutions, but strangely it's the Progressives who just can't seem to accept the results of elections.  It's the Progressives that are forcing unpopular laws on large minority populations (Republicans are a minority in Virginia, for example, but they are 49% of the electorate).  The population is seeing the imposition of unpopular ideas by Democrats who have a thin majority: impeachment, gun confiscation in Virginia, Bake That Cake, men in women's rest rooms, the corruption of the FBI.

But for the moment, it's delightfully calm, at least here at Castle Borepatch.  The Queen Of The World and I are going for long walks with Wolfgang - after all, he has new frisbees to break in.  It's nice.  Peaceful.

And unlikely to last.

Pirate Cove at Castle Borepatch

Click to embiggen.  The Queen Of The World had a vision of Halloween and it came out pretty well.  We went a little overboard but it's fun to see families come around with their kids to look at it.

Halloween comes to Castle Borepatch

There's a pirate cove at the castle drawbridge.

Yeah, we went a little overboard this year.  Kind of hard to get a good picture on the phone - the pirate ship on the right is pretty dark so you'll want to click to embiggen.  Need to get the actual camera out.

Halloween preparation

The Queen Of The World is already planning upgrades to the Castle Borepatch walls, said upgrades to be complete by Halloween.  So I guess I have to start cracking, because her plans rival the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople.  Translation: it will be awesome.  About the only thing it will lack will be a regiment of zombies doing synchronized dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller.



But her wish is my command, so excelsior!

The "Knock Out Game" comes to Castle Borepatch

Well, not Castle Borepatch itself, but within its shadow.  Some "youths" killed a guy at the Frederick County (MD) Fair.  A group surrounded him, one distracted him by asking for a dollar, and the hero of the group cold cocked him from behind.  While he was lying on the ground, another "youth" spit on him.

They flew him to the shock and trauma center in Baltimore where he died.  He was 59 years old.  The local newspaper has been giving this pretty good coverage.  There was a video of the incident posted to snapchat but it looks like it has been scrubbed from the 'net.  This local TV coverage is decent.



The kids involved are 15 and 16, but the District Attorney says that they will be charged with manslaughter and tried as adults.

This all happened ten miles from Castle Borepatch, in a nice middle class town in broad daylight.

The coverage has been evolving over the last 3 or 4 days.  The initial shock led to the media reporting things in plain language, but now there are more and more weasel words as the story gets massaged to fit the narrative.  Both the stories and the District Attorney have started saying that this wasn't a hate crime, even though we know that a group of white teenagers attacking a black man would be described as precisely that.  And despite the video showing one kid spitting on the man when he was on the ground.

Initially there was a lot of talk about the "knockout game", but that's been swept down the memory hole.  It's not The Narrative to talk about how groups of black teens target whites to sucker punch them, although this is why The Queen Of The World and I have not been to Baltimore's inner harbor - it's just not safe.

And Maryland is a "May Issue" State, and the police won't give carry licenses unless you're politically well connected.

Being thankful

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for a long time.  It's a meditation that we should do more than once a year, but here it is so meditate, damn it!

I'm thankful for The Queen Of The World who is a whirlwind of cooking and decorating energy.  The table is set and the house smells so good that tummies are rumbling.  And tomorrow she'll start Christmas decorating.  It's not for nothing that a neighbor calls her "Martha Stewart".  I love all this, and today's meditation makes me realize how lucky I am to have her in my life.

I'm thankful for Wolfgang, because without him I probably wouldn't get out looking for deer lurking around Castle Borepatch very often.

I'm thankful for my co-bloggers here, ASM826 and Brigid.  They bring a touch of class to what would just be my ravings, and so it's not just me who should be thankful but you as well ...

Lastly, I'm thankful for you, Gentle Reader.  This has become a community, one which we would never have come to know without the amazing magic of the Internet.  It has let us find each other and enrich each other's lives.  A special thanks and shout out here to long time commenter waepnedmann. Last week when the QOTW and I were in California he offered a bolt hole if the fires got dangerously near.  Fortunately it didn't come to that, but his kind and generous offer would never have been possible without this community that has grown up in our little corner of the 'net.  It's an amazing thing to see, and I am very grateful indeed.

Lastly, since it is Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the greatest Thanksgiving day humor ever broadcast.



And the closing line, of course:

Catching up

I'm back home at Castle Borepatch, but still digging out from the trip.  Blogging will be back to normal soon, but in the meantime, here's a thief caught on camera.

I love Halloween

I get a real kick out of seeing the villagers dress up their kids for trick-or-treat at Castle Borepatch.  The Queen Of The World loves decorating the place for the spirit (heh) of the season, and so there are jack o'lanterns and headless horsemen and potion vials all over.

And co-blogger ASM826 came by and we went to the local tavern's halloween party.  The QOTW arranged fun constumes:

Last night we were the Flintstones.  The QOTW even dressed up Wolfgang as Dino, and he hung out on the lawn with us as the kids came by.  He's great with kids, and would come up to him for kisses.

Every year it's fun, and getting more fun.  Hope you had as good a time last night as we did.

Family is visiting

The Queen Of The World's sister is visiting, and we're headed out to show them the area around Castle Borepatch.  Blogging will be light today.

Go Sox!

Having grown up in New England, I've been a Red Sox fan since I was a kid.  In all those years, I've never seen a season like this.  As of today, they have won just shy of 70% of their games this season, an astronomical percentage.  There are 33 games left in the season; if they win 70% of these they will end up with 113 wins (!).

To put that in perspective, the Red Sox have never won more than 105 games in a season, and that was in 1912 (coincidentally, the year that Fenway Park opened, and the year the Titanic sank).  The Sox haven't won 100 games in a season since 1946, and that is a lock this season.  With 90 wins already, they only need to win a third of the remaining games to get into triple digits.  It seems certain that they will break that 105 game record, and very likely will get 110 wins this year.

The Major League record for wins in a season is 116 - this looks to be a stretch.  But the fact that we can even speculate about this in late August tells us that this is a very unusual season.

I feel bad for the Orioles (the local team near Castle Borepatch).  Last year they made it to the post season but this year they're a lock to lose 100 games.  Pretty close to a First-to-Worst season, which has folks around here a little down in the dumps.  I almost feel sorry for the hated Yankees, too (almost, but not quite) - they have the best record in baseball this year other than the Sox and they're around ten games back.

As a long time fan I know the danger of counting chickens before they hatch (I'm looking at you, Bill Buckner!) but I must confess that I am entirely enjoying this season.  Something special is shaping up, and it sure is fun to watch.

Ouch

This weekend was full of chores around Castle Borepatch.  On Saturday we hung a storage shelf from the garage ceiling and reorganized the garage.  It's nice to have all the room and to have everything in its place, but then we followed up yesterday with gardening - digging big holes and planting things.  That wouldn't have been so bad except for all the rocks and construction debris in the ground that had to be dug out and removed.

Oof.

New Taxidermist in town

LOL.  But that antelope must have been shot by ASM826.  I'm pretty east coast.

Although given all the deer around Castle Borepatch, maybe he could do a White Tail sporting an AR-15.  It is Maryland, after all!

The Day the North almost lost the Civil War

154 years ago, a battle was fought in the northern approaches to Washington DC.  Due to incompetence at every level of command in the Army Of The Potomac, Confederate General Jubal Early had brought an entire army corps to within a day's march from an undefended capitol city.

Image via Amazon

Frequent commenter and buddy in real life Libertyman came for a visit to Castle Borepatch, and the Queen Of The World and I took him to the site of the battle.  Had Castle Borepatch existed 154 years ago, you could have heard the gunfire from the Castle parapets.  Libertyman kindly sent this book, Desperate Engagement which tells the story of that campaign.

By early summer in 1864, Robert Lee and the Army Of Northern Virginia was facing a siege at Richmond and Petersburg.  Ulysses Grant had attacked nonstop that spring, at the Wilderness through Cold Harbor, pushing Lee back to the gates of Richmond.  Grant was immune to casualty reports and had very nearly broken his army that spring even though he had gained territory.  Now he needed to replenish his forces for a final push to take the Confederate capitol.  To do this, he stripped the north of all available soldiers.

Lee saw an opportunity.  Perhaps the most successful general in history who could divide his forces in the face of a superior enemy, he asked Early to take his Corps up the Shenandoah valley, defeat the Union forces there, and cross into Maryland.  Lee's plan was that this would force Grant to detach significant forces from Richmond to protect Washington.  Early was Lee's most aggressive general, in many ways cut from the same cloth as Stonewall Jackson, and Early jumped at this chance to thrash the Yankees on their own turf.

The book lays out in astonishing detail how the Union high command simply missed the intelligence they received from the field: how Early routed the Union army in the Shenandoah, how Early's men kept marching north towards Maryland, how they had crossed the Potomac.  Somehow none of the generals up to and including Grant connected these dots, and they were simply ignorant that 20,000 confederates were marching on an undefended capitol.

1864 was an election year, and the war had been going badly that year.  Losses were enormous, and Lincoln's call for another half million men led to draft riots in New York City.  If the South had captured Washington, it is unlikely in the extreme that Lincoln would have won re-election, it's possible that England and/or France would have recognized the Confederacy, and the history of the New World would have been very different.

But not everyone was asleep.  B&O Railroad Co. President John Garrett alerted the commander of Union forces in Baltimore, Lew Wallace.  Wallace scraped together a few thousand men and - despite opposition and indifference from the Army high command - brought them to Monocacy Junction, a B&O station a couple miles south of Frederick, MD.  They dug in.

Although outnumbered 3 to 1, they fought hard.  It took Early's foot-sore men an entire day to break the resistance.  Then Early raced for Washington.  His troops arrived within sight of the Capitol dome, but were exhausted from the hard marching of the previous month - not to mention the battle.  It's a fascinating question what would have happened if he had pushed into town immediately.  The forts were guarded by militia and invalid soldiers who would not have stood a chance.  But his troops were at the end of their endurance, and a suddenly aware Grant had detached the 7th Corps by steamboat from Richmond, and they arrived at the city wharf at the same time Early's troops arrived outside the forts.  Early was famously aggressive, but seems to have thought that he risked the destruction of his army.  Instead, he withdrew to Virginia.

What is indisputable is that if Lew Wallace and his troops had not so stubbornly fought for so long, Early would have beat the steamships by a day.  The Capitol would have been burned, the Treasury looted, and Lincoln's (and likely the Union's) prospects would have gone up in smoke.

The Union high command showed continuing incompetence after the battle, looking around for a scapegoat and seizing on Wallace who was removed from his command.  Grant finally figured out that Wallace had saved the day and restored his command after a couple of weeks.  All in all, it was not the Army's finest moment.

Wallace, of course, went on after the war to write Ben Hur, which made his fortune.  He's known for that, but really should be known for saving his country.

Thanks to Libertyman for the book, which is a great read.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk - Le Banjo

Image via Le Wik

So who did Frédéric Chopin consider the "King of pianists"?  It was someone that you may never have heard of.  I hadn't heard of him until long time commenter and classical music aficionado Libertyman mentioned him during his current visit to Castle Borepatch.  It's quite a story.

Gottschalk was from New Orleans, born in 1829.  He was a musical prodigy, and at age 13 was sent to Paris for a classical musical education.  In the United States, New Orleans was considered "french" and perhaps a little disreputable for that; in Paris, he was considered more than a little disreputable because he was American: the head of the Piano faculty at the Paris Conservatory sniffed that America was a country of steam engines and that Paris had no need of that sort of nonsense.  Gottschalk didn't even get a hearing.

But the Gottschalk family had connections in Paris, which got him an invitation to perform.  His creole flavored music captured the imagination of the Paris musical society, leading to the great Chopin himself attending one recital.  Chopin was impressed enough to predict great things for the young Louis.  That's quite a recommendation, one that opened doors.

When Gottschalk returned to America he began a tour of the Caribbean and South America, where he picked up even more "exotic influences" that diffused in his compositions.  He traveled all over (100,000 miles on trains, it was said) and performed over 1,000 concerts.  He became certainly the most well known pianist in the Americas - fulfilling Chopin's prophecy.

Le Banjo is his best known composition, sometimes performed by as many as 40 pianos at the same time.  This performance by Cecille Licad gives the exotic flavor and high energy of Gottschalk's works.



The final irony of his life was that he died after playing a song called "Death" at a concert in Rio de Janeiro.  He was only 40.

Delayed posting

Long time commenter Libertyman is visiting Castle Borepatch, and we're off to Gettysburg.  Posting will be sporadic, but he and I will collaborate on a Sunday Classical post for tomorrow.  Back later.

Happy Valentine's Day

The Queen Of The World has been leaving little surprises around all over Castle Borepatch, which is great fun.  I hope you have as nice a Valentine's Day as I'm having.  Or at least better than this: