Elysium of Rain: Video

Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2015

XXIII.

TAXI

It was raining hard in 'Frisco

I needed one more fare to make my night

A lady up ahead waved to flag me down

She got in at the lights

"Oh, where you going to, my lady blue?"

It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain

She just looked out the window, she said

"Sixteen Park side Lane"

Something about her was familiar

I could swear I'd seen her face before

But she said, "I'm sure you're mistaken"

Then she didn't say anything more

It took a while but she looked in the mirror

Then she glanced at the license for my name

A smile seemed to come to her slowly

It was a sad smile, just the same

And she said, "How are you, Harry?"

I said, "How are you, Sue?

Through the too many miles and the too little smiles

I still remember you"

It was somewhere in a fairy tale

I used to take her home in my car

We learned about love in the back of a Dodge

The lesson hadn't gone too far

You see, she was gonna be an actress

And I was gonna learn to fly

She took off to find the footlights

I took off to find the sky

Oh, I've got something inside me

To drive a princess blind

There's a wild man, wizard

He's hiding in me, illuminating my mind

Oh, I've got something inside me

But it's not what my life's about

'Cause I've been letting my outside tide me

Over till my time runs out

Baby's so high that she's skying

Yes she's flying, afraid to fall

I'll tell you why baby's crying

She's dying, aren't we all?

There was not much more for us to talk about

Whatever we had once was gone

So I turned my cab into the driveway

Past the gates and the fine trimmed lawns

And she said, "We must get together"

But I knew it'd never be arranged

Then she handed me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare

She said, "Harry, keep the change"

Well another man might have been angry

And another man might have been hurt

But another man never would have let her go

I stashed the bill in my shirt.

And she walked away in silence

It's strange how you never know

But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for

Such a long, long time ago

You see, she was gonna be an actress

And I was gonna learn to fly

She took off to find the footlights

And I took off for the sky

And here, she's acting happy

Inside her handsome home

And me, I'm flying in my taxi

Taking tips, getting stoned

I go flying so high when I'm stoned.....

Songwriter:

CHAPIN, HARRY F.

Published by
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group

Harry Forster Chapin (December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter best known for his folk rock songs. "Taxi" and the No. 1 hit "Cat's in the Cradle." - which many people erroneously credit Cat Stephens.

Harry Chapin posthumously was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work, for his fight to end world hunger, in 1987. In the mid-1970s, Chapin focused on social activism, including raising money to combat hunger in the United States. His daughter Jen said: "He saw hunger and poverty as an insult to America." Much of the money from sales of his concert merchandise were used to support an organization that he co-founded called "World Hunger Year". Harry also released a book of poetry, Looking...Seeing, in 1977.

Chapin, w/ his daughter

After the debut of his album Heads and Tales, which included his hit song "Taxi", Harry and three band members (playing cello, bass, electric guitar) who had never met before rehearsed for one week and arranged the songs with cello parts and background vocals.

Elektra Records and Columbia Records actually battled over signing him, and Harry ended up signing w/ Elektra as this smaller company would provide the artist with "greater personal attention to his unique work." Elektra Records had just merged with Warner Brothers and Atlantic Records to form the mammoth WEA, and Harry Chapin happened to be the first test of who now had the greater artist signing power. The band was in the right place at the right time and were able to negotiate what was said to be the largest recording contract in history for a new artist.

Chapin ultimately signed with Elektra for a smaller advance, but with provisions that were much more valuable. The biggest stipulation in the nine-album deal was that he receive free studio time, meaning he paid no recording costs. It was a move that would ultimately save Chapin hundreds of thousands of dollars over the term of his contract and set a precedent for other musicians. "This was completely unheard of," said Davis in the Coan book. "There was no such thing as free studio time."

Chapin met Sandy Cashmore (née Gaston), a New York socialite nine years his senior, in 1966, after she called him asking for music lessons. They married two years later. The story of their meeting and romance is told in his song "I Wanna Learn a Love Song." He had two children with her, Jennifer and Joshua, and was stepfather to her three children from a previous marriage, Jaime, Jason and Jonathan. Chapin wrote several songs about her, including "Shooting Star" about their relationship, and "Sandy".

On Thursday, July 16, 1981, just after noon, Chapin was driving in the left lane on the Long Island Expressway at about 65 mph on the way to perform at a free concert scheduled for later that evening at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. Near exit 40 in Jericho he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of either a mechanical or medical problem (possibly a heart attack). He then slowed to about 15 miles (24 km) per hour and veered into the center lane, nearly colliding with another car. He swerved left, then to the right again, ending up directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck could not brake in time and rammed the rear of Chapin's blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit, rupturing the fuel tank as it climbed up and over the back of the car, causing it to burst into flames.

The driver of the truck and a passerby were able to get Chapin out of the burning car through a window after cutting the seat belts before the car was engulfed in flames. Chapin was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, where ten doctors tried for 30 minutes to revive him. A spokesman for the Nassau County Medical Center said Chapin had suffered a heart attack and died of cardiac arrest, but there was no way of knowing whether it occurred before or after the accident.

His epitaph is actually are his own words from the song, ""I Wonder What Would Happen to this World." He was 44 years old at the time of his death. - Source: wikipedia

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
to this world

Sunday, June 21, 2015

XVI.

Séance on a Wet Afternoon

Full Movie from YouTube, posted by Gelyn Resuma

"Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a 1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by Mark McShane, in which an unstable medium convinces her husband to kidnap a child so she can help the police solve the crime and achieve renown for her abilities. The film stars Richard Attenborough (who was also the film's co-producer), Kim Stanley, Nanette Newman, Mark Eden and Patrick Magee."

PLOT

"Myra Savage (Kim Stanley) is a medium who holds séances in her home. Her husband Billy (Richard Attenborough), unable to work because of asthma and cowed by Myra's domineering personality, assists in her séances. Myra's life and psychic work are dominated by her relationship with the spirit of her son Arthur, who died at birth."

"At Myra’s insistence, Billy kidnaps the young daughter (Judith Donner) of a wealthy couple (Mark Eden and Nanette Newman), confining her in a room in the Savage home dressed as a hospital ward. Myra impersonates a nurse to deceive the girl into believing she is hospitalised. Myra insists she is "borrowing" the girl to demonstrate her psychic abilities to the police in helping them find her. Although they ask for a £25,000 ransom, they plan to return the money with the girl after Myra has become famous for helping find her."

"Myra's plan goes awry as her unsteady mental health begins to fray. She tells Billy to kill the girl, and he takes her into the woods and leaves her body under a tree."

"When the police ask Myra to conduct a séance to help them find the missing girl – as she had hoped they would – she breaks down during the séance and reveals, as if in a psychic trance, what she and Billy have done. Billy tells the police where he hid the ransom money and reveals that he did not kill the girl, but left her unconscious where she would be found by scouts camping nearby."

RECEPTION AND AWARDS

"Critical reaction in the British and American media was overwhelmingly strong. The London Express called the film "superbly atmospheric" while The Sunday Telegraph dubbed it "compassionate, intelligent and absorbing." The New York Herald Tribune called Séance on a Wet Afternoon "the perfect psychological suspense thriller and a flawless film to boot" while The New York Times stated "it isn’t often you see a melodrama that sends you forth with a lump in your throat, as well as a set of muscles weary from being tense for nigh two hours.""

"Kim Stanley won the Best Actress Award from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review. She was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Actress (she lost to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins) and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress (she lost to Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater). Richard Attenborough won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, while Forbes’ screenplay and Gerry Turpin’s cinematography received nominations. Forbes' script won the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award and the 1965 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America."

CAST

Kim Stanley as Myra Savage

Richard Attenborough as Billy Savage

Nanette Newman as Mrs. Clayton

Mark Eden as Charles Clayton

Patrick Magee as Superintendent Walsh

Gerald Sim as Detective Sergeant Beedle

Margaret Lacey as Woman at first Séance

Marie Burke as Woman at first Séance

Godfrey James as Mrs. Clayton's Chauffeur

Ronald Hines as Policeman outside Clayton's

Frank Singuineau as Bus Conductor

Source: WIKI

Sunday, May 24, 2015

IX.

Riders on the storm

Into this house we're born

Into this world we're thrown

Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan

Riders on the storm

There's a killer on the road

His brain is squirming like a toad

Take a long holiday

Let your children play

If you give this man a ride, sweet family will die

Killer on the road, yeah

Girl, you gotta love your man

Take him by the hand

Make him understand

The world on you depends, our life will never end

Gotta love your man, yeah

Riders on the storm

Into this house we're born

Into this world we're thrown

Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan

Riders on the storm

Artists/Band: The Doors
Album: LA Woman
Credits: John Densmore / Robby Krieger / Ray Manzarek / Jim Morrison

Riders on the Storm was the last song Jim Morrison recorded with the Doors. He made a trip to France and died there. The single, Riders on the Storm" was released in June, 1971, Prior to it's release they performed the song live twice, Once in Dallas, and later in New Orleans.

"According to band member Robby Krieger, it was inspired by the song "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend". Also, Jim Morrison mentions spree killer Billy Cook, in passing, during at least one interview. Cook killed six people, including a young family, while hitchhiking to California. In all likelihood, the Cook murders were inspiration for the song's lyric, "There's a killer on the road/his brain is squirming like a toad/if you give this man a ride/sweet family will die.. " -wiki

"Morrison developed an alcohol dependency. He died at the age of 27 in Paris, allegedly of a heroin overdose. No autopsy was performed, and the exact cause of Morrison's death is still disputed. Jim Morrison's grave is located at Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris." -wiki