Topic: THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (Read 34693 times)

Danise · « **Reply #90 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:26:36 PM »

Hi all! I've just come from meeting MB! I'm soooo excited!

I have one more concert tonight then I see him one last time, singing with the Mormon choir then I have to wing my way home.

I have TONS of lovely pictures and stories to share.

Gotta run--time is almost out!

Talk with you all when I get home!

Dan (the Man) · « **Reply #91 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:29:56 PM »

I dance with words:

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]SUMMER LIKE HEAT[/move]
[move=RIGHT,scroll,6,transparent,100%]MOWING A LAWN[/move]
[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]A COOL SHOWER[/move]
[move=RIGHT,scroll,6,transparent,100%]BIRDS SINGING MADLY[/move]
[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]ITALIAN HOGIE & CHERRY COKE[/move]

DearReaderLaura · « **Reply #92 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:32:30 PM »

If Guy Haines performs at the Cinegrill, I'm sure that DRs Sandra, Kerry, Jay, and myself will all be there.

Panni · « **Reply #93 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:36:23 PM »

This is the time of year when I'm deluged with DVD's and Tapes for Emmy voting. Some are wonderful, others (most) are - NOT. Today I did well. I got in the mail a full boxed set of ANGELS IN AMERICA,; JUDY GARLAND: BY MYSELF; ARTHUR MIILER, ELIA KAZAN AND THE BLACKLIST; Ken Burns' HORATIO'S DRIVE; THE LA PHILHARMONIC INAGURATES DISNEY HALL...and some other stuff. Not bad.

bk · « **Reply #94 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:38:00 PM »

Go to that cabaret website and write DR Donna and tell her. Let us begin the GH campaign now.

Panni · « **Reply #95 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:38:11 PM »

Like your dance, DanTM.

Panni · « **Reply #96 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:39:09 PM »

...On the other hand, yesterday I received the new GOODBYE GIRL.

bk · « **Reply #97 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:39:23 PM »

And I'm thrilled that Feinstein is out of there. I really abhor these little celebrity things, where the celebrity lends his name to something but has nothing really to do with it. I, for one, am looking forward to the reemergence of the Cinegrill. I only wish it were back upstairs where it was.

Panni · « **Reply #98 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:41:30 PM »

Quote from: bk on May 15, 2004, 01:18:34 PM

Mr. Haines has only sung in public once, at the Lerner, Loewe, Lane and Friends STAGE benefit.....But, just as he popped that the number ended and the lights blacked out. DAMN!

Funny.

Jennifer · « **Reply #99 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:48:14 PM »

DR Panni, some of those sound good! I would very much like to see Angels In America (but I don't get HBO). And I am also curious about the new Goodbye Girl.

Jennifer · « **Reply #100 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:49:36 PM »

Lots of posts for a Saturday.

I love Krispy Kremes!

Only 6 left.

Although I only ate 2.

SO sweet. But not too sweet for me.

Jennifer · « **Reply #101 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:51:51 PM »

I went to Club Price this morning and the line at the cash was SO incredibly long. I hate that.

Earlier went to the bank. And next door at The Bay (department store) they had some new reduced jewelry (love it when it's 50% off and an extra 30% off). They had the earrings, that match the necklace I got for my birthday. I LOVE that.

Well I gotta run. Making poutine. And then I rented LOVE ACTUALLY.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #102 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:55:48 PM »

Maya, wherever did you find the Gordon MaCrae album? Sounds very interesting. I have an album of his I just love that has a wide array of interesting songs (like I'll Remember April; June In January, Etc). I seen a couple of others of his, but the song selection is rather tepid.

I think one can maintain both the Mythic and the Supernatural in the Troy story without resorting to actual depictions of the gods and keeping the gods presence and reality only in the minds of the humans.

I understand why the gods have been excised as actual characters. Dramatically, heroes, be they tragic or not, must be responsible for their own actions. If you take free will and free choice from them and have the gods bailing them out of this situation or the other, it creates all sorts of problems...First of all, the rules of magic become blurred...Why can a god do something in this instance, but not in another? What is the immortality question of the gods, as they seem to get wounded, etc? But mostly, their actual presence makes them looks like puppet masters and diminishes the will of the hero. A hero must carve out his own destiny. He must rise and fall by his own decisions. If everything becomes the will of the gods or predestined by them, you dramatically castrate your human characters and the drama as a whole.

The thing I always hated in the Harryhausen movies was the gods sitting up in Olympus playing chess with the fates of Jason or Perseus. A hero makes his own fate.

That still doesn't mean you can't have prophecies and soothsayers and strange supernatural creatures like Centaurs or Satyrs or Cyclops, etc. But once you take the gods out of the minds of the characters and make them real characters, you diminish your human characters.

Again, if one reads the myths behind the myths and the origins of this stuff you find out how many interesting variants there are on it. Robert Graves for me has been an indespensible source...both with my Trojan thing and my Hercules project at NBC. What's wonderful about the myths is sometimes they just give you a story or an incident and you must find a dramatically compelling way to motivate it. Just like the Greek playwrights did.

Prime example: I was watching Oedipus Rex the other day. The presence of the gods as interpreted and being a part of the characters' daily lives is palpaple and real. But not one god appears in the play. But the whole thing is rich with the inevitability of prophecy and tinged with the supernatural. But remains a distinctly compelling human drama.

François de Paris · « **Reply #103 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:58:55 PM »

For those who need their Julie Andrews fix!

From www.oprah.com

.....Julie Andrews, legendary star of stage and screen, is the final member of Shrek 2's star-studded cast to join the party. In the film, she plays Princess Fiona's mother, the Queen of Far, Far Away.

"I'm so thrilled to be part of this family," Julie said. "Oh, they're grand!"

Unlike the rest of the cast, Julie had some company while recording some of her dialogue. "I'm the only one that got to spend one day with somebody else in the booth. John Cleese plays my husband, the king, and for one magical day, he and I got to play in the booth and sort of wing things back and forth. It was very helpful. The other days I had to do it on my own."

What's been the best part of the whole experience for Julie? "I think that I've just gone up like crazy in my grandchildren's estimation!" she laughed.

elmore3003 · « **Reply #104 on:** May 15, 2004, 01:58:59 PM »

Well, I'm frustrated! I've been waiting for the post all day, hoping the FINE AND DANDY recording would be in the mail. Well, my regular postman's off today, I have no idea where his replacement is, and there's no sign of a package. Now that it's after 5:00 pm EST, I doubt I'll hear it before Monday (if it arrives!). DAMN!!!
DOUBLE DAMN!!!

François de Paris · « **Reply #105 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:00:43 PM »

I'd like to unmake Poutine!

but that's another story!!

Panni · « **Reply #106 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:03:47 PM »

I was going to see GLOOMY SUNDAY last night, but didn't feel like going out. I decided to see it today at 1:30, but got busy writing and missed it. I'm gloomy about not seeeing GLOOMY SUNDAY.

The title, BTW, refers to the "Suicide Song"...Legend has it that hundreds of people have committed suicide while listening to this little ditty, written in 1933 by two Hungarians, Rezsõ Seress (music) and László Jávor (lyrics). It consisted of the first two stanzas only -- the last stanza was added later – I think to cheer people up.

Here is one version of the English lyrics as sung by Sarah Brightman. (Hide the razors and pills.)

Gloomy Sunday

Sunday is gloomy
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coach
Of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought
Of ever returning you
Would they be angry
If I thought of joining you
Gloomy Sunday

Sunday is gloomy
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and I have decided
To end it all
Soon there'll be flowers and prayers
That are said I know
But let them not weep
Let them know
That I'm glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul
I'll be blessing you
Gloomy Sunday

Dreaming
I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart dear
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is telling you
How much I wanted you
Gloomy Sunday
Gloomy Sunday

music: Reszõ Seress
lyrics: László Jávor / Sam M. Lewis

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #107 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:06:56 PM »

Pogue does the Greeks. As Haemon in Antigone (Anouilh's)

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #108 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:11:37 PM »

Gloomy Sunday with those lyrics has been around since the forties at least. My father had a 78 of this song with a girl singing it. I can't remember the band. I want to say Artie Shaw, but he so rarely used singers on his stuff. Though I don't remember the dreaming verse.

Jay · « **Reply #109 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:21:13 PM »

It's curious to me that the film is being presented here in the U.S. with the title of Gloomy Sunday. The German title is Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod. I'm no German scholar, but I do believe that translates as "A Song of Love and Death," a far more apt and descriptive title for the film than "Gloomy Sunday."

Panni · « **Reply #110 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:29:21 PM »

Quote from: Charles Pogue on May 15, 2004, 02:11:37 PM

Gloomy Sunday with those lyrics has been around since the forties at least. My father had a 78 of this song with a girl singing it. I can't remember the band. I want to say Artie Shaw, but he so rarely used singers on his stuff. Though I don't remember the dreaming verse.

As I said in my post, it was written in the 30's. The dreaming verse was added later on.

Tomovoz · « **Reply #111 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:33:09 PM »

"Gloomy Sunday": Great versions by Billie Holiday and Sinead O"Connor. Interesting version - Toni Fisher (Thanks M Barnum).

Tomovoz · « **Reply #112 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:34:27 PM »

It may be gloomy Sunday here - I am going to see a local production of "Les Miserables".(today of course)

Tomovoz · « **Reply #113 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:42:47 PM »

A mini frenzy: "Angels in America" is at last to get a showing on OZ TV. Advertising started this week so I guess it will be in June.

Speaking of "OZ". The TV series has just started here - I've watched the first two episodes - I find it annoying rather than confronting. Does it improve?

JMK · « **Reply #114 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:44:40 PM »

DR Maya: Walking Happy and What Makes Sammy Run? are indeed available on CD. In fact, I think some of us mentioned here eons ago that after ordering Sammy directly from Steve and Eydie, we somehow got on their private email distribution and were party to all sorts of contract negotiations for a gig in Hawaii. It was quite funny.

Maya · « **Reply #115 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:50:21 PM »

Quote from: Dan (the Man) on May 15, 2004, 01:23:18 PM

DR Maya, so wonderfully young and so wonderfully versed in musical theatre! My hat's off to you!

Awww, thanks, Dan! I've just been exceedingly dorky since my early teens, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Quote from: Charles Pogue on May 15, 2004, 01:55:48 PM

Maya, wherever did you find the Gordon MaCrae album? Sounds very interesting. I have an album of his I just love that has a wide array of interesting songs (like I'll Remember April; June In January, Etc). I seen a couple of others of his, but the song selection is rather tepid.

I honestly can't remember just where I found it. I lived in NYC for a year when I went to acting school, but I always used to peruse used record stores for cheap rare theatre music. I found it at one of those, though I can't for the life of me recall which one. The one you have sounds great too!

I agree to some extent with your thoughts on "Troy," but I also think that by excising the gods, you do lose some of what made "The Iliad" so powerful. I DO think it is possible though to somehow integrate touches of mythology without the heroes surrendering free will. If anything, I think the battle between free will and fate that so often occurs in Greek mythology is fascinating and dramatic. I'll let you know my thoughts on the movie when I get back!

Loved the "Antigone" pic, btw!

Thanks for letting me know about the CDs, JMK, I wasn't sure!

Matt H. · « **Reply #116 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:55:21 PM »

DR Maya, HAPPY HUNTING is on CD. In fact there's a joke about it being on CD in LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!

DR Elmore, I understand your point, and DR RLP has voiced the same opinion about judging and appreciating TROY as is as opposed to what I would wish it to be.

The point is, I wouldn't be interested in a battle film even with these breathtakingly beautiful men as focal points. It was the mythological elements of the story as they appeared in THE ILLIAD, the consistent roles that the deities played in the war as told in that version of the story, that gave it any interest to me. If I only want to see it for the gorgeous near-naked men on display, well, I can wait a year and see it on HBO since I'm already paying for it, and save my $10 for something else I'd get more esthetic pleasure from.

Panni · « **Reply #117 on:** May 15, 2004, 02:56:13 PM »

...I think the suicide aspect of the song is more urban myth than reality. Although I do remember when I was little in Hungary (not in the '30's - I'm not THAT old) my mother talking about the song and the people who killed themselves while listening to it. I used to imagine these people slowly sailing off tall buildings while sad music played. I've actually always beeen rather fascinated by suicide - from a very young age. In my genes perhaps.
I'll let Dorothy Parker have the last word:

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

Noel · « **Reply #118 on:** May 15, 2004, 03:01:18 PM »

Quote from: Maya on May 15, 2004, 02:50:21 PM

I lived in NYC for a year when I went to acting school,

DR Maya, what acting school did you attend?

Panni · « **Reply #119 on:** May 15, 2004, 03:02:58 PM »

I'm actually having fun today just sitting around, doing my writing, posting once in a while (pretty often actually) ... It's kinda cozy having nothing special to do. I guess the rest of the world must be doing fun things out there... It IS the weekend.

News:

Author Topic: THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (Read 34693 times)

François de Paris

François de Paris