HARLOW'S "RECKLESS"

The other day I saw Jean Harlow's "Reckless" on Turner. It's not a great film, and I'm not a fan of Harlow, but she, or rather the girl who sang in her place, did a great job on the prelude to the title song. It's a nifty piece of work that deserves to be recognized. Here's the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein:


Harlow: "What'll you ever BE?"

"What'll you ever DO?"

"How will you ever KNOW if you don't take a chance!?"


Girl Chorus: "You have got-to-get-ONE...SWEET...TASTE..."


Harlow: "I'm gonna LIVE long,

LEARN a lot,

I'll light my candle,

and I'll BURN a lot!"


Girl Chorus: "You'll have your BEST shocks,

HARD knocks..."



Harlow: "I'm on my OWN if I bruise!"


Girl Chorus: "And they'll be SMART TEARS,

JUST TEARS!"


Harlow: "And I can take it on the CHIN if I lose,

because I'm RECKLESS!!!"


Girl Chorus: "Because she's reckless..."


Harlow: "RECKLESS!"


Girl Chorus: "Because she's reckless..."


Harlow: "I'm gonna GO PLACES and LOOK LIFE IN THE FACE!!!!"


Astonishing genius! I love the rhetorical structure of the piece, and the contrast between the earthy, almost masculine voice of the singer, and the feminine voices in the choir. Never skimp on the choir. Without them (or a good instrumental or spoken poem) there's no contrast.

It's a pity that so many arrangements don't adequately set up the song. You have to prime a song, just like a pump. The song needs something to bounce off of, and that something has to be major entertainment in its own right, independent of the song. In the case of "Reckless" the primer overshadows the song, and that's OK. I would never cripple a really good primer, whether in music or animation, just to make the mediocre subsequent statement a little less offensive.

I'M NOT DEAD!!!!!!!

I'm not dead, I'm just super busy!!!! Man, Christmas is a bear, isn't it?!!! I'll try to post something later today!

MARIO LANZA

I have a rough deadline to meet tomorrow so I can't do a really first-rate post. How about a really good second-rate post?...second-rate only because I can't take the time to comment on it...Mario Lanza singing "Be My Love." Boy, he really belts this out! If I've posted this before then forgive me, but I doubt many will mind hearing it a second time.





Here's (above) a song that used to be sung at weddings. It starts mild then Mario goes into turbo mode the way Caruso used to do.

MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS CD

My favorite Christmas CD? That's easy: "The Christmas Album," shown above. One thing that's striking about it: every song is sung with conviction. No irony, no condescension, just the straight dope. I also like the idea that some of the songs come from the mono era, and that artists include off-the-wall choices like The Associated Glee Clubs of America, and the De Paur Infantry Chorus.

While I'm at it, I think I'll put up my list of definitive versions of Christmas songs. Here goes:

First Noel: Mario Lanza (45rpm version only, not the one on his Christmas album).

Jingle Bells: The Chipmunks

Cherry Tree Carol: Beers family

Watts Nativity: Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Mono)

O Holy Night: Mahalia Jackson

Silver Bells: Johnny Mathis

Blue Christmas: Elvis

White Christmas: Bing

Rudolph: Autry

This list leaves out a lot, most notably "Silent Night." That's because those songs are done well in several versions and no one version stands out as the best.

Favorite Christmas albums include ones by King's College (the early ones), Mathis, Jackson, the Chipmunks (only the one with Jingle bells is commendable), Nat King Cole and a bargain audio cassette: "Music Box Christmas." Come to think of it, there's a great CD containing songs and recitations by Hollywood stars of the 40s...I just can't think of the name.

.

A NEW CARICATURE!

Boy, you have to have thick skin to be a caricature subject for John! Here I am on a restaurant napkin, sharing the space with a starfish, a screaming girl, and a puppet profile.

If you're curious to see what doodles were on the other side, then here you go!

JOHN K WINS ASIFA AWARD!

It was announced yesterday! ASIFA's 2008 Winsor McCay Award for career achievement goes to John Kricfaluci! I can't think of a better choice! Hearty congratulations, John!

I'm just stating the obvious when I say that John's contribution to the industry has been immense. He and Ralph re-invigorated a dying animation industry with "New Adventures of Mighty Mouse " which, together with Disney's "Roger Rabbit, " brought on the 90s animation boom. His "Ren & Stimpy" was ground-breaking in every way, and is still massively influential, even today. Flash animation was just a way to do banner-ads before he got hold of it, and his blog is a stunning teaching tool and oasis of thoughtful cartoon analysis. If I were to discuss his drawing innovations this post would require a couple of hours to read. The man's amazing, what can I say?

The award ceremony is on February 8, 2008. For tickets and information :

http://www.annieawards.org

WHAT THE CENTER OF OUR GALAXY LOOKS LIKE

Here's (above) a picture of a near-by galaxy that's believed to look like our own. Pretty isn't it? When I was a kid they told us that no one could see the center of our own galaxy, that whatever was there was a mystery. Now all that's changed. Now we know that a monster black hole lies at the center, and we even have pictures of the area surrounding it.

And here (above) it is, the center of the galaxy. The space you see isn't very wide, there's just a lot of stars packed into it. These stars are highly energetic. They're born, live and die in an amazingly short time. They're constantly colliding and eating each other up.

If you want to see the very, very center then here (above) it is, where the arrows are pointing on the picture on the right. The stars closest to the center of the picture are erratically orbiting the black hole at a velocity of three million miles an hour. The size of the hole? It contains two million solar mases and it's the size of a grain of dust!

Here's (below) a link to an animated film showing the path of the stars closest to the hole:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/GC/images/gck.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/science/&h=461&w=461&sz=76&hl=en&start=27&tbnid=N5o9gxE8L-g1zM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcenter%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bgalaxy%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ie%3DUTF-8

Here's (above) the center of the Andromeda galaxy where a black hole is in evidence which is even more powerful than our own. I know what you're thinking it looks like.