i can only swear you make me feel like i don't care
02.06.05 @ 1:09 a.m.
It turned out that bothering to finish the last few pages of The Jew of Malta paid off, since one of the three selections to analyze for the midterm was a speech by Barabas from the last act. Of course, I read all those sonnets and the one we were given was a Procreation sonnet, one of the first seventeen in the cycle.
So now, in my usual habit of becoming infatuated with and obsessing over a particular song has found a new object in "Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman. Now, I've known of the song for ages and ages because just about every Who biography talks about Pete producing this hit single for this band, etc. I never sought it out until last night, when I watched The Magic Christian (more on that in a moment) and my attention was caught by a song at the end of the movie. I'm not even sure that it was THIS song, it's just that I saw this song in the end credits and thought "Dang, I am going to look that up." I'm not listening to it as hard as I listened to "Uniforms (Corps d'esprit)" and some of the other songs I have become enraptured with at some time or another, but I genuinely like it enough that I want to add it to my usual playlists.
Okay, The Magic Christian. I have no fucking idea what to make of several parts of the movie, but my love of Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr is deep and abiding. Let's also remember that Graham Chapman and John Cleese worked on the script and had cameos. (Graham Chapman wars with Michael Palin for favorite Python... I love Graham platonically and have mad crushes on Michael.) (My curiousity, by the way, has driven me to watch the "Free Money" scene of TMC, and it is indeed "Something in the Air" playing over that scene. I do love being right, even when I only prove it to myself.) Another miscellaneous comment I need to make on this movie is "DAMN, Raquel Welch is indeed a bona fide sex goddess," and I say this as a straight woman. I have no idea where the big name guest stars are, otherwise (Christopher Lee, Spike Milligan, etc). The song "Come and Get It," used so often in commercials, is from the opening credits, incidentally. I'd say that this is a movie worth watching, especially if you like/know film from the late sixties or Peter Sellers. There, I think I've gotten the randomness out of my system. Still, I'm fascinated by my own incomprehension of parts. I don't know if the film could have benefited from more clarity or not. It might have helped me, but ruined the tone and character of the film. Or am I just attracted to the personalities of Ringo (gotta love Ringo, especially later Ringo--I think I liked him more in Help! than A Hard Day's Night, despite the ridiculously bad haircuts in Help!) and Peter Sellers. I have that worshipful admiration for Peter Sellers that does not involve crushage. A Shot In The Dark, Dr. Strangelove, this film, a few of the other Pink Panther movies.... I love them, and now I think it will be a month or so of seeking out other films he's been in. Mom rented "Casino Royale" once and I saw a few minutes of it, but I never watched the whole thing, and she seemed to like it.
Highlights: The Hamlet scene, Sotheby's, most of the stuff that happened onboard The Magic Christian, Free Money. ESPECIALLY the Hamlet scene, especially since I'm rewatching it right now. It's making me giggle SO HARD. I do not understand the supermarket bit. I think that I'm going to watch this several times before I return it to the library.
I'm a little annoyed that I cannot find the novel it's based on in the computer catalogs of either of my regular libraries. Ah well. It just means I'll throw Powell's the ten dollars that they never charged me for my collecton of Milton poetry.
I was tempted, last night, to take a video of the "Crusin'" video from Elephant Parts with my digital camera because I love it so much and want to share it with the world. It probably wouldn't really work. But I was thinking about Michael Nesmith (Monkees binge, natch) and how much I love him in that video. Perhaps the only man (apart from early seventies Pete) that I really love in a beard. Ohh, now I want to watch Isle of Wight. I'm also tempted to try staying up all night and into tomorrow evening to readjust my fucked up sleep schedule, since I drank a bunch of caffine and am still WIDE AWAKE at nearly two in the morning.
Hmmmm. We'll see how the rest of the night progresses.
Previously
fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05
