Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Envying song

Paul Simon is a genius (though I somehow feel he should have achieved [even?] greater things). I love "Born At The Right Time" on Rhythm of the Saints. The song is about the busy overcrowded globalized world and the innocence of children, and is full of felicities, but what makes me envious is the treatment of the second of the lines "Born at the instant/Church bells chimed" - the melody is an oscillating major 2nd, both notes combining euphoniously on "chimed" in what strikes these atheistic ears as the sound of church bells.

Of course poetry has its unique resources and the grass is greener. Here's a combination of film and song that for me achieves the extradimensional effect of the church bells above (note, very long download). I used to live near the stretch of Sanchez street shown, a few blocks which seemed like the center of the universe at the time and now do so again.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was initially unimpressed assuming it was CGI. But the backup material says otherwise. So very cool. Maybe now we need disclaimers, such as "no CGI used in this film"...sort of like the old "based on a true story..."

27/11/05 22:09  
Blogger rilkefan said...

hilzoy, I don't know "Hearts and Bones" - as implied, I'm always a bit disappointed in Simon's work, so I haven't gotten around to listening to all of it.

lcs, I'm not sure in this case what the difference would be from an artistic standpoint.
Some cool stills.

I think the opening shots are badly chosen, by the way - it should go from a particular spot to a view across the valley instead of starting with a view of the city.

27/11/05 22:46  

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