great songs tainted by the movies

yes, it's been forever since i last posted. i find that since i'm writing for a living now, i don't have as many words in me for blogs anymore. but this blog has been rattling around in my head for ages now, so it's about time that i get it out!

i completely love cameron crowe. he's talented, observant, married to a rock star, and he's made some of my all-time favorite films. he uses music so well in his movies....but sometimes, for me, he does it too well. because now whenever i hear some of those songs, all i can picture is the scene in the movie that the song was used in -- and it has obliterated all previous emotion that i had for the song.

the best example of this? when lloyd "lloyd all null and void" dobler holds up his boombox outside of diane's bedroom window in say anything, blaring "in your eyes" by peter gabriel. an amazing moment in the movie, and an amazing song.... which i now only associate with that movie. my own memories of that song have been bogarted.

cameron did it again in almost famous, when the stillwater tour bus riders all sing along to elton john's "tiny dancer."

my first memory of this happening was at the end of sixteen candles, when jake goes to the church after the wedding to see sam..... all the station wagons pull away and there he is, standing by his red porsche.... and the thompson twins' "if you were here" is playing. sure, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. but now i can't hear the song without remembering the movie!

those three examples are all really sweet scenes in lovely movies. what about the songs that are used in a more negative way?

what about the beginning of the silence of the lambs when the chick who would later be kicked off greys anatomy for being slightly too realistically gay is driving her truck singing along to "american girl" by tom petty? then later on she "places the lotion in the basket....."

and the scene in reservoir dogs where mr. blonde is cutting off pieces of the cop and dancing around to "stuck in the middle with you" by stealers wheel? yack.

so, i pose this question to you, both of my readers -- what songs have the movies ruined for you?

some of my favorite and most vivid memories from my childhood are of visiting my relatives in ohio. grandma and grandpa lived there, and we would go for a week or two each summer. my grandma always had mallomars and secretly handed me a $20 bill when i left. grandpa didn't speak much english but played a mean game of chinese checkers, and always had grapes and veggies growing in the backyard. but the best part about visiting ohio was going to uncle mitch's farm.

mitch and aunt yvonne lived on a huge farm in the heart of amish country, complete with barns, cows, horses, a pond, fields of produce, and five kids to work it. for an animal crazy girl, it was heaven on earth. i got to pet the baby cow (without realising what its' future actually held). i got to ride the horse. one lucky summer, i got to play with chow chow puppies. sometimes i'd help with the chores, baling hay or harvesting (and then canning) corn.

but mostly it was playtime for me. my cousin carmella introduced me to barry manilow there. i did gymnastics and routines on the swingset there. i watched princess diana get married there. i saw my first pg rated movie (foul play) there. we went swimming and played putt putt at the park in the middle of town. i spent almost every night at the farm.

i don't remember many specific conversations with aunt yvonne and uncle mitch. for me, i remember the things we did. they were the first family i knew who had a microwave oven. (that was the summer of the hot dog.) yvonne worked all the time, and mitch was always working hard around the farm. he was a revelation to an impressionable and somewhat sheltered young girl from the suburbs. he swore. he had a temper. he was loud. he didn't allow for squeemishness when it came to possibly slimey things you'd encounter when swimming in the pond. if memory doesn't fail, he was for ronald reagan back in 1976. before he built his farm, he was a cop. then he started a moving company, and later, an orchard and an outdoor supply store. uncle mitch marched to his own drummer, and i loved him.

sometimes you don't realise how much someone has influenced your life until it's too late. unconsciously, i learned from uncle mitch that it was ok to speak up for yourself and to BE yourself. mitch died a few days before thanksgiving. thank you uncle mitch.

happy birthday python!

the big apple bites back

who cares if he didn't know the words?

one of the best tee shirts ever.

so talented. so delicious.

times square

boz!

i'm ready for my close up, ms. demille.

no longer a killer!

my darling!!

here a text, there a text

again borrowing from jamiesmitten's bag of blog tricks, here are some actual text messages sent or received on my cell phone:

i don't care. i won't be stalking you. i'm too busy with the jobros

need to bite your gorgeous hiney.

i didn't know that u knew that there were two 6's in a day!

no tongan drool

whore of satan please leave!

yes dear.

my sign for tomorrow "hug blonde - last day"

robin said she made the ziti

it's unbelievable that he keeps finding new ways to piss me off.

gotta love the text.

teddy

"We cannot know for certain how long we have here," Obama continued. "We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God's plan for us. What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings. This is how Ted Kennedy lived. This is his legacy."

yay for the grass fairies!

my mechanical lawn tractor, ok, mower, has been broken for more than a year. i finally pushed it onto the trailer and hauled it to the fix-it place today. after getting annexed last year, now i have to keep the grass in the front yard under 12 inches. and for the last few months? some unknown person or persons has been cutting my grass every few weeks or so. i like to call him the grass fairy. i suspect it's my next door neighbor, but i've never caught him green-thumbed, so i can't really be sure.

meanwhile, my four-legged lawn mower, lotto, got a new pasturemate last week. not quite sure where fred went, but lotto and fred were never really close. i think lotto was still grieving for levi, and unable to give fred the time of day. but now the new pinto has arrived. and while he whinnies like a little girl, his people keep raking up the extra mowed grass in his pasture and throwing it over the fence to lotto in his pathetic barren pasture.

so it's a yay! for the grass fairy who keeps my front yard low, and a yay! for the grass fairy who keeps lotto in munchies.