Monday, April 27, 2009

COLORFUL TRINITIES

After a couple of posts concerned with things some might find petty, including me actually, I thought I'd get back to something serious, like listing favorite movies, books and music with a color in their titles. No way I cold come up with another alphabet list, or at least I couldn't last night when falling asleep. So I went for my other favorite list form, trinities, or triplets. Here they are:

THE BLUE DAHLIA
RED RIVER
BLACK ORPHEUS

THE SCRIPTURE OF THE GOLDEN ETERNITY by Jack Kerouac
THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN PAVILION by Yukio Mishima
THE TEMPLE OF GOLD by William Goldman

BLUE MOON (the version Elvis Presley sings on The Sun Sessions where he sustains that little falsetto almost yodel)
BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HAIR (The 1950s Nina Simone solo piano/singing one)
BIG YELLOW TAXI (Joni Mitchel''s early solo acoustic guitar/singing one)

10 comments:

JIm said...

Michael,

I propose a question that has nothing to do with your subject. I know this annoys you and your daughter, but I thought it might be of mutual interest to people from different political back grounds. What affect do socialistic or capitalist societies have on creative artistic expression? My limited to zero knowledge of the arts much less the current art scene limits my ability but not my curiosity. My reflex is to believe that great art comes out of great adversity. I think of Solzhenitsyn, Edgar Allen Poe, and Van Gogh. My reflex is to believe that free expression is limited by statist socialism, except in opposition, and is in turn freed by Capitalism. Your thoughts would be interesting if you care to ponder.

Anonymous said...

hey! I've seen every one of these you list! terrific.

and as close as I ever get to

"I think about Solzenitsyn,
Poe, and Van Gogh" is

Kirk Douglas and that Vincent Price movie The Pit and the Pendlum!

and

"great adversity" ? here in post avant-amerika!? what "adversity"

my student loan's been paid off over 43 years ago. so's my house and 22 year old F-150

Ed

Lally said...

My friend, poet Ray DiPalma, sent me an e mail with five titles he thought of, not all my favorites but worth mentioning:

Big Green Day, Tom Raworth

The Pink Church, Wm Carlos Wms [got him noticed by the McCarthy era whackos] was published by Golden Goose Press in 1949.

Red Desert [Il deserto rosso] Antonioni

The Rose Tattoo, Tennessee Wms

Purple Rain

Lally said...

Just to clarify, I was never crazy about The Rose Tattoo or Red Desert, and Purple Rain I haven't seen since it first came out but remember it being kind of campy, entertaining and certainly musically excellent, but a little over the top. But The Raworth and Williams books would be on any list of favorites of mine.

Lally said...

Another great addition to my "gold" trinity was just suggested in an e mail from Ray DiPalma, one of my most favorite books as a young man and still, poet Bob Kaufman's little City Lights collection GOLDEN SARDINES.

Oh, and by the way Jim, as to your question, like most things it all depends on your taste and perspective. Trying to make something out of nothing is adversarial enough, but some art flourishes under repression, some doesn't. As for "capitalism" vs. "socialism" or what you call "state socialism"—these terms are extremely weak descriptions of what has never been purely one or the other. All modern democracies have been a mix of both and in fact even the most totalitarian regimes, like Hitler's or Mussollini's or Stalin's were a mix of both to at least some extent. Hitler's was probably the weakest in terms of "great art"—outside of Leni Reifenstahl's (this is off the top of my head so probably spelling that one wrong) documentaries like TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, which were basically Nazi propaganda but very well done and pretty innovative, influencing later non-Nazi documentary film making etc.

Lally said...

Woops. I meant GOLDEN SARDINE, singular, as Ray reminded me. It's right on the bookshelf behind me, but I wrote it from memory and my hand slipped and the computer made me do it and....

Unknown said...

Ok, these are kids ones but still
Yellow Yellow by the guy who wrote Who Needs Donuts, forgot his name
The Red Balloon (movie w/no words, French?, also a picture book of stills from the movie)
Pinkalicious can't remember the author

Lally said...

YELLOW YELLOW is a great kids' book and THE RED BALLOON had an impact beyond what anyone could have expected from such a minimalist approach to what a movie can be, and still does. But I don't remember PINKALICIOUS?

Unknown said...

Pinkalicious is new, very girlie and perfect for you know who!

Anonymous said...

Dear M:
Green Suede Shoes.
Red Snow Fence (by Harry Northup,which you gave me). Two by James Liddy: In a Blue Smoke and Blue Mountain.
Mark Alan Stamaty (sp?) is the creator of the great Who Needs Donuts? and Yellow Yellow.
TPW