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| Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh's North Side, Summer Solstice, 2019. (Photo by Katy Buchanan) |
After a bit, we finished dinner and caught the last 20 minutes of "Wedding Crashers." (Why we are watching an at least 15-year-old film is a subject for another night.)
Anyway. Owen Wilson's character is spiraling into despair, and, for some reason, his handsome-ugly face, framed by a dyed blond choppy do, reminds me of rocker Rod Stewart. Then, about 8 to 10 minutes later, the movie is done and the song laid over the final scene is Stewart's "Stay With Me." Not going into what the lyrics of that song mean for the movie, but we started talking about the music of our lives, which included the output of Stewart in his heyday.
We agreed that, as young people, we listened mostly for the music, not the words. And I still love the music — its shape, its beats, its structure —but holy cow, the words for "Stay With Me" are awful. How much kicking of a woman can you do, while still asking her to stick around?
Which also puts me in mind of "Oklahoma," on stage this weekend in Pittsburgh (the Rodgers & Hammerstein version, not the current-day revival in New York). A good friend is reviewing, we had a chat about that and other things during a nice walk on this rare sunshine-y June Saturday in southwestern Pennsylvania. The music, and especially, the dancing, are gorgeous, but the lyrics to some of the songs ("Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City") and ("I'm Just A Girl Who Cain't Say No") to name two, definitely serve up some suggestions for reflection.
I know these works are products of their times. And I'm not really sure what I want to say about them. In retrospect, I enjoyed the art of these artists, in part, not in whole.
Circling back, there is a short future of long days ahead of us. I'm hoping for a modicum of sunshine.
The following link goes to the scene from the 1955 film, scene of the Kansas City song. Choreography is awesome.
Everything's Up To Date in Kansas City
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