Thought for the Day - Feb 8

Subject: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Peter T.
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:51 AM

SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC

Condensed from this week's issue of The New Yorker (Anthony Lane):

"Since August, every Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, the Prince Charles Cinema off Piccadilly, has been programming the "Sing Along Sound of Music". The idea is simple. You watch the film -- uncut as nature intended, in a scuzzy print. The only difference is the added subtitles for each song. Every screening has an m.c., who oversees a Best Costume competition during the intermission. When I arrived on a Friday night, an hour before the start, the area around the cinema was packed. To be specific, it was packed with nuns, many of whom bore guitars. (One week, just to confuse the issue, the winner of the Competition was a real nun). There were Nazis, naturally, as in every major city, plus a lot of people who looked like giant parcels. "Who are they?" I said to a nun who was having a quick cigarette before the film. She looked at me with celestial pity and blew smoke: "Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings". Of course. One night, when I was not there, a guy turned up in a skintight, all-over body costume in bright yellow; asked which character he intened to represent, he explained that he was Ray, A Drop of Golden Sun.

Among the delights: two hundred people whistling at Christopher Plummer when he enters with a riding crop; lighters waving overhead during his rendition of "Edelweiss"; explicit instructions to Rolf concerning the strapping Hitler Youth's taking Liesl in hand, etc. -- For an extra five dollars, ticket holders can buy a helpful gift pack that includes fake edelweiss, a packet of cough drops, a head scarf, and a small foamrubber nun puppet, in which you are urged to "stick your fingers and sway along".

Sing-Along Sound of Music is such a hit that it is going on a national tour, and in April it will hit America. Twentieth Century Fox will not yet name the lucky cinemas where it will screen, but I can safely reveal that New York and San Francisco, among others, should be girding their loins for Schnitzel Time."

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: sophocleese
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:13 AM

Thanks for that one Peter, I'm giggling. Rocky Horror Show meets Sound of Music, marvelous!

To quote from 'The Return of Heroic Failures':

"Only the South Koreans have really got to grips with 'The Sound of Music', the well known film in which Julie Andrews and a selection of carbolically scrubbed infants burst into song up Alps, inside monasteries, on assorted staricases and in a wide range of wholly surprising locations.

Finding the film a shade overlong, the Koreans wisely decided to cut out all the songs. Shown with no music whatsoever, yet still called 'The Sound of Music', the film proved extremely popular and played to full houses all over South-East Asia."

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:21 AM

What's next? Deadheads meet the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Peg
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:30 AM

wow what a fabulous idea!!!! Now we need the same thing for The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Oklahoma! and Phantom of the Paradise...

peg

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: GUEST,Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:36 AM

Can I be the Tin Man's axe?

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: MMario
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:39 AM

*shudder*

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Áine
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:43 AM

We represent the Lollipop League, the Lollipop League, the Lollipop League . . .

Geez, I'm having flashbacks to when I took some cough medicine with codeine and had nightmares about a forest of trees that turned into different flavors of lollipops and started chasing me . . . Don't think I'll be going to *that* particular Sing Along film . . . uuuggghhh!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: GUEST,Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:45 AM

Oooh...does anyone else know the story of the guy who killed himself on the set of The Wizard of Oz?

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:47 AM

I'd like to sing along with "Thank Heaven for Little Girls". Can we do that one?

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: MMario
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:51 AM

lullabye league and lollipop GUILD

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:59 AM

Purist!

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Áine
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:12 AM

Whatever . . . Oh yea, that's right, the little buggers wouldn't let the lady littles into the GUILD -- they had to settle for a bloody LEAGUE . . . Why, I'd like to take one of them itty bitty toeshoes and . . .

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:16 AM

Munchkins are soooo unpredictable!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: MMario
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:17 AM

This is a day of independence, for all the Munchkins, and their Descendants!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:29 AM

Today they're free from ancient laws,
Imposed by MGM and Oz!
So dance the dance of Munchkins free,
And all gang up on Dorothy!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 05:05 PM

So what's the story of the guy who killed himself?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 05:13 PM

Its a very small story, short on details.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 06:02 PM

During production of the movie, one of the stage hands hung himself from one of the trees in the Witch's Cottage scene. They say if you watch the scene carefully, you can see him swinging. I haven't gone back to see myself, but that's what they say.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: GUEST,Rich(Stupidbodhranplayer..............)
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 06:37 PM

I'm surprised Aine hasn't issued a song challenge about this. Rich

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: GUEST,flattop
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 07:22 PM

Perhaps the challenge should be to check the veracity of the story. Surely someone has seen the stagehand if he's in the tree. What a way to leave an echo!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 08:26 PM

Yeah, I've heard the story about the swinging munchkin - and also that it isn't actually true. Which is either disappointing or pleasing according to taste - I'de settle for pleasing.

Can't say I could stand one of these interactive fun fun fun things at the movies. But I think it demonstrates that we are moving into a time when the concept of the passive mass audience is dying out, and that's good for the folk approach to music.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 08:37 PM

Hmmm...did anyone else besides me notice the stork in that same scene? I always thought it was kinda weird for a stork to be in Oz...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 08:42 PM

Well, I don't want to know where you think Munchkins come from, duh!!

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 08:51 PM

Hey, Munchkins hatch from eggs! EVERYBODY knows that!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 08:57 PM

Well, maybe, but that's before the stork brings 'em over.

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:05 PM

Someone should write a Storking Blues about having babies.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:13 PM

Man, I gots the Storking blues
Deliv'rin' eggs all day
Man, I gots the Storking blues
Deliv'rin eggs all day
Man I hate this bidness
Munchkins don't never give me no pay


--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:21 PM

Naw, ya got it all wrong! The stork was there as a symbol/representative of the Good Witches/WiseWimmin Midwives' Guild!

Way back when they were making the movie, our ancestral sisters took up protest signs and picketed for a fairhanded approach to the subject of WiseWimmin, thereby mandating the balanced appearance of Glenda, the Good Witch, to that of the nasty, stereotypical hag of the West!

Sheesh! This was covered in Elementary Feminism!

katlaughingWiseWomon

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:29 PM

And all this time I though it was drunk and just kinda wandered onto the set!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:29 PM

I think I was taking Advanced Masculinity that day...:>)

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:32 PM

Geeziz...It wasn't a stork!!! It was the Waylon Heron in drag.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:42 PM

WRONG! (Sorry, Waylon Jennings reference there.)

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 09:42 PM

There he sat in he-man splendor
Loading up on testosterone.
While she, away, with sisters dear
Learned to raise a power cone.

Advanced in masculinity
He got an A in war & glory
She eschewed her mother's tatting
And took to driving Daddy's lorry!

Then, she learned twas a'right to be
A lady and a womon
He to let the tears flow freely
And let the rigid stance be gone.

Now, they join in muddled melding
Each one sure the other's trying
Hard to be the best PC
Or in the effort at once lay dying!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Áine
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:34 PM

Dang it! I go off lookin' fer recipes and chattin' 'bout poetry for jes' a little while and look what happens! OK -- it's official -- THIS IS A PROXY CHALLENGE (cuz I can't think of a dad-blasted thing with this achin' knee!!) --

It's a 3 part challenge: Write (or finish) the following songs:

1. Munchkins Hangin' In Dem Trees (a/k/a Strange little Fruit); or 2. The Storkin' Blues; or 3. Elementary Feminism (a/k/a Glenda The Good Witch Gets Guilded)

And I'm takin' my swollen knee and this Challenge! over to the SONG CHALLENGE! Part 5 thread.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:34 PM

Neat kat!

And uh...Meebo? What the hell are you talking about?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:40 PM

COME ON, SPAW! You've never heard "Wrong" by Waylon? It came out in 1992! One of the last songs I heard in America before we flew out to Japan for 3 years! GEEZ you really need to brush up on your Waylon. Gotta know the classics!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:47 PM

Well then gee Meebo...You ought to be kissin' my feet or ass or somethin'......When I lived in Nashville, I lived 6 doors down from Waylon's new home and only 4 from Johnny Cash!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:52 PM

Musta been back in yer rough & rowdy days! You sure you've never heard "Wrong"? BTW I stood on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry--sure I was only 7 but it was still cool...

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Troll
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 10:59 PM

Meebo. Was that at the REAL Grand Ole Opry or at Opry Land?

troll

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:07 PM

It was the REAL Grand Ole Opry. The original. Where Hank Sr. and Lefty and Ernest all stood!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:29 PM

Its the Ryman Auditorium........and when they opened up the new place at Opryland, they cut out a section of the Ryman stage and put it in the new stage.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Troll
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:38 PM

Sorry Meebo. Didn't think you were old enough to have been at the Ryman. I was there in the late 60's. WOW

troll

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Mbo
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:41 PM

I was there in December 1985.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:49 PM

Its still there guys, as a museum ... And you too can stand on that same stage!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Troll
Date: 08 Feb 00 - 11:56 PM

Yeah, I know Spaw. But it's just not the same as being there and hearing Oswald play The Great Speckled Bird or the Magee Brothers do Buckdancers Choice.

Some body once said that progress is just a way to make bad things happen faster.

troll

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 12:02 AM

Truth.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: alison
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 01:46 AM

The fella hanging is supposed to be in the forest scene just before they fall asleep in the poopy field... never managed to see him myself.....

I love the idea of this Sound of Music (I'll be there when it gets to Oz)...... at least a Nun costume it would be less drafty than prancing around Belfast in the middle of winter in slinky undies and a white lab coat for Rocky Horror... hahaha..... mind you in the heat over here at the minute.. I think Rocky Horror would win...... *grin*

Touch-a touch-a touch-a touch me..........

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: sophocleese
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 09:42 AM

Sorry Alison but few people are agoing to touch-a-touch-a-touch you if you keep hanging out in poopy fields. You may want to get dirty but I think it means something else in the song.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Áine
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 09:45 AM

Dear soph,

Why does your last post call to mind the scene in the film 'Tommy' where Ann-Margaret rolls around in those pork and beans??? Let's see, I know that alison has red hair . . . Mmmmmm . . . it could work, if we asked the rabbits nicely to help out with the 'production' . . .

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - Feb 8
From: Amos
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 09:55 AM

Lay me down in them poopy fields, oh! The poopy fields so far away, Lay me down in the poopy fields And touch, oh touch my cares away.

(Excerpt from a recently discovered parchment in Old Gaelic, found under the stones in an old castle in Hibbing)