Tonight's movie was "Shag" (1989), the story of four girls from South Carolina who are about to head off to college and want to have one last Summer blowout before they go. Doesn't sound like my usual fare, right? :) Well, keep in mind that, as I've mentioned a few times, I'll watch any type of film - from musicals to Silents to Westerns to foreign films to sci-fi and horror, film noir, you name it, as long as it doesn't star Adam Sandler, Schwarzanegger or Danny Devito. So, that means I will watch "chick-flicks", so long as the movie looks interesting (like "Fried Green Tomatoes", etc). With "Shag", there is another factor, that I'd already seen the movie when it came out 28 years ago. I remembered it as being a lot of fun, and so when I saw it at the Libe I decided to watch it again. And it holds up nearly three decades later. It's set in 1963, and so the period detail is of utmost importance in order to evoke the Nostalgia Factor, and in this movie they nail it in the same way that Tom Hanks nailed it in his only directorial effort, "That Thing You Do", also set in the early 60s, an era that is close to my heart.
"Shag" revolves around a wild trip to Myrtle Beach where a dance contest is gonna be held. Romance is of course in the air as well, early 1960s style, so the stricter morals of the 50s are still in place but the barriers of the prior decade are about to be broken down by the Free Love era of the later 60s. Change was in the air, and the movie captures this feeling quite well. It's all about fun, though - it's not a message picture, just strictly about the girls, the romance, the rock n' roll (pre-Beatles) and most of all the Period. 1963 was the Last Year Of Innocent America, before JFK got killed, before Vietnam, before Nixon and Watergate, and before all of the trouble leading up to this day. I mean, okay that's not entirely true, because you could say "what about WW1 and WW2"? "How could the 40s have been an Innocent Time"? And that is a good question and an honest question, but I think the answer lies more in American culture than in American or World History. I was a kid in the 60s, and while the whole decade was One Long Amazing Trip, I think the early 60s create in retrospect the most nostalgia because of the perceived Cultural Innocence of the time. "Shag" stars Phoebe Cates, Annabeth Gish, Bridget Fonda and Paige Hanna. All have since retired from show biz except for Gish, who is known best nowdays as Agent Reyes on "The X-Files".
You don't have to be female to appreciate a movie like "Shag". You just have to be a Nostalgia fan, or a Romantic or both.......like me.
I wouldn't mind having a Time Machine to go back to 1963......and to have someone to go with me would be even better.
Well anyhow, that was all the news of the day. We were watching the terrible wildfires on the news. The one in Orange County is 60 miles away, but the smoke obscured the sky all the way up here in the Valley. The Moon had an orange tint tonight.
Elizabeth, if you are reading, I saw one post about the difficulties of "writing something you can't play", which was the gist of the post. I would offer encouragement only by saying that......
The Composition is Everything. If you are hearing music in your head that deserves to be composed, don't worry at first about the recording process. The music is what is most important. Just get it down any way you can, even by humming melodies into a tape recorder (if anyone uses such devices anymore, lol). Trust me - the greats have done it this way. Great writers and players who have kept tape recorders near their beds so that they could record a memorable inspiration even upon waking from a dream.
Do not worry at all about playability at first. The important thing is The Music.
If it is in your head, just get it onto a recordable surface - paper, or tape, or even just your memory.
That part is Imperative. You can figure out how to play it later. :):)
That is all for tonight, see you in the morning.
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