This Is Not MY Wonderful Life!
Jun. 15th, 2006 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frustratedpilotHey.
Tonight on CBS, there was yet another of American Film Institute's "100 Years" shows devoted to the movies. This time, they went for the theme of inspiration...and the top film in this class was It's a Wonderful Life. That doesn't surprise me at all...especially when you take into account the fact that it's been ripped off by half the TV sitcoms ever produced, usually for their Christmas holiday episodes.
I suppose my vision of that movie is clouded by having seen Frank Capra's WW2 propaganda films first. I mean, this was his first feature after the end of the War, and I guess the national mood at the time was "WE WON--but did our National Soul come through the ordeal intact?" So this was his attempt at an answer.
Is it optimistic to wonder if we'll be asking the same questions when our current troubles are over...or just optimistic to belief that we'll still BE AROUND to ask?
* * *
To change the subject a little...
Long-time readers of this blog know that I have a pathetically tiny music CD collection, borne from lack of funding, peculiar taste in music and the lack of high-speed download technology. Even so, I have a number of redundant songs in my stock...thanks to the fact that hits collections seem to draw from the same songs. Those of you with MP3 players don't have this "problem", right? You just throw on what you want, the whole what you want, and nothing but the what you want? *shrug*
What I have more than one of:
"Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics (would want "Here Comes the Rain Again" or "I Need a Man" to replace one)
"Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project (have their Greatest Hits collection)
"Cool Change" by the Little River Band (I have their Greatest Hits, plus "Night Owls" on another CD, so I'm not sure there are any more songs of theirs I'd want)
"Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant (would want "Romancing the Stone")
"Words" by Missing Persons (I have most of their hits...again I wouldn't know if they had any other songs to interest me)
"Only the Lonely" by the Motels (how about "Icy Red", "Shock", or "Don't Tell Me the Time"?)
"She Blinded My With Science" by Thomas Dolby (gimme "One of Our Submarines Is Missing" or "Airhead"...?)
"True" by Spandau Ballet (an "Only When You Leave" would be fair exchange)
"The Reflex" by Duran Duran ("A View to a Kill"? "Save a Prayer"? "Skin Trade"? "Meet El Presidente"?)
"The Tide is High" by Blondie ("Dreaming" or "Heart of Glass" would be nice instead)
"Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo, "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Wave, "Der Kommissar" by After the Fire...I love one-hit wonders, I have to admit. But what to add that I don't already have? The immediate bands that come to mind WEREN'T exactly one-hit wonders per se.
Meanwhile, I continue to scour the bargain bins of record stores, and wince when I see CDs that have songs that are already on this list above...or worse--songs I never want to hear again. It's tough to be an informed consumer.
FP
Tonight on CBS, there was yet another of American Film Institute's "100 Years" shows devoted to the movies. This time, they went for the theme of inspiration...and the top film in this class was It's a Wonderful Life. That doesn't surprise me at all...especially when you take into account the fact that it's been ripped off by half the TV sitcoms ever produced, usually for their Christmas holiday episodes.
I suppose my vision of that movie is clouded by having seen Frank Capra's WW2 propaganda films first. I mean, this was his first feature after the end of the War, and I guess the national mood at the time was "WE WON--but did our National Soul come through the ordeal intact?" So this was his attempt at an answer.
Is it optimistic to wonder if we'll be asking the same questions when our current troubles are over...or just optimistic to belief that we'll still BE AROUND to ask?
* * *
To change the subject a little...
Long-time readers of this blog know that I have a pathetically tiny music CD collection, borne from lack of funding, peculiar taste in music and the lack of high-speed download technology. Even so, I have a number of redundant songs in my stock...thanks to the fact that hits collections seem to draw from the same songs. Those of you with MP3 players don't have this "problem", right? You just throw on what you want, the whole what you want, and nothing but the what you want? *shrug*
What I have more than one of:
"Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics (would want "Here Comes the Rain Again" or "I Need a Man" to replace one)
"Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project (have their Greatest Hits collection)
"Cool Change" by the Little River Band (I have their Greatest Hits, plus "Night Owls" on another CD, so I'm not sure there are any more songs of theirs I'd want)
"Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant (would want "Romancing the Stone")
"Words" by Missing Persons (I have most of their hits...again I wouldn't know if they had any other songs to interest me)
"Only the Lonely" by the Motels (how about "Icy Red", "Shock", or "Don't Tell Me the Time"?)
"She Blinded My With Science" by Thomas Dolby (gimme "One of Our Submarines Is Missing" or "Airhead"...?)
"True" by Spandau Ballet (an "Only When You Leave" would be fair exchange)
"The Reflex" by Duran Duran ("A View to a Kill"? "Save a Prayer"? "Skin Trade"? "Meet El Presidente"?)
"The Tide is High" by Blondie ("Dreaming" or "Heart of Glass" would be nice instead)
"Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo, "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Wave, "Der Kommissar" by After the Fire...I love one-hit wonders, I have to admit. But what to add that I don't already have? The immediate bands that come to mind WEREN'T exactly one-hit wonders per se.
Meanwhile, I continue to scour the bargain bins of record stores, and wince when I see CDs that have songs that are already on this list above...or worse--songs I never want to hear again. It's tough to be an informed consumer.
FP
