http://therumpus.net/2009/09/the-eyeball-28-movie-binge/ Books, Music, Movies, Art, Politics, Sex, Other Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:58:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://therumpus.net/2009/09/the-eyeball-28-movie-binge/comment-page-1/#comment-12006 Rick Moody Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:17:35 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=32187#comment-12006 Ryan, that list of songs from Tarantino is just shocking! Shocking! Jason Mraz is everything that's wrong with music! However, instead of wasting time on that subject, I want briefly to attempt to rehabilitate Roy Orbison. It took me a long time to get it, to get him, but then I really got it, and the turning point, for me, was the "In Dreams" section of BLUE VELVET. Since you are a movie-drenched human, I suggest rewatching the sequence (it's the part where Dean Stockwell lipsynchs to Orbison). I had heard Orbison many times before (and I remember puzzling over Springsteen's obsession with him, when I heard "Thunder Road" for the first time in my teens), but when I saw this film, or when I was first bludgeoned by this film, I suddenly got the surrealism (and I mean the word literally) in what Orbison does. What's upsetting and fascinating about him is how much is going on underneath the spooky countertenor passages. It's all dark. Very very dark. And very vulnerable. A falsetto is meant to be angelic, of course, but often the guys who sang those lines, in doo wop, let's say, or in the Beach Boys, ended up being the darker scarier guys, as if to compensate, and that's sort of how I think about Orbison. The slightly unnatural voice is out of character for the material, and "In Dreams" is a good example. He doesn't mean, you know, romantic dreams. He means the violent, disjunctive chaos of real dreams, which is why Lynch used him in BLUE VELVET. I say go back and watch that passage, and then try listening to "Running Scared," which has to be, by my lights, one of the very greatest early rock and roll singles. Ryan, that list of songs from Tarantino is just shocking! Shocking! Jason Mraz is everything that’s wrong with music! However, instead of wasting time on that subject, I want briefly to attempt to rehabilitate Roy Orbison. It took me a long time to get it, to get him, but then I really got it, and the turning point, for me, was the “In Dreams” section of BLUE VELVET. Since you are a movie-drenched human, I suggest rewatching the sequence (it’s the part where Dean Stockwell lipsynchs to Orbison). I had heard Orbison many times before (and I remember puzzling over Springsteen’s obsession with him, when I heard “Thunder Road” for the first time in my teens), but when I saw this film, or when I was first bludgeoned by this film, I suddenly got the surrealism (and I mean the word literally) in what Orbison does. What’s upsetting and fascinating about him is how much is going on underneath the spooky countertenor passages. It’s all dark. Very very dark. And very vulnerable. A falsetto is meant to be angelic, of course, but often the guys who sang those lines, in doo wop, let’s say, or in the Beach Boys, ended up being the darker scarier guys, as if to compensate, and that’s sort of how I think about Orbison. The slightly unnatural voice is out of character for the material, and “In Dreams” is a good example. He doesn’t mean, you know, romantic dreams. He means the violent, disjunctive chaos of real dreams, which is why Lynch used him in BLUE VELVET. I say go back and watch that passage, and then try listening to “Running Scared,” which has to be, by my lights, one of the very greatest early rock and roll singles.

]]> http://therumpus.net/2009/09/the-eyeball-28-movie-binge/comment-page-1/#comment-9260 Ryan Boudinot Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:46:35 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=32187#comment-9260 Gaia: You are absolutely right. Lousy fact checking on my part. Scott Favor it is. --Ryan Gaia: You are absolutely right. Lousy fact checking on my part. Scott Favor it is. –Ryan

]]> http://therumpus.net/2009/09/the-eyeball-28-movie-binge/comment-page-1/#comment-9248 Gaia Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:17:31 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=32187#comment-9248 Just a correction: Keanu Reeves' castname in My Own Private Idaho was SCOTT FAVOR. It doesn't sound good using it wrong towards your students..... ;-) Just a correction: Keanu Reeves’ castname in My Own Private Idaho was SCOTT FAVOR. It doesn’t sound good using it wrong towards your students…..

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