Now, I did drink a lot of champagne last night. My lovely wife and I watched The Philadelphia Story, which is a film that lends itself well to excessive consumption of champagne, if only in imitation of the characters. And when we turned off the movie, we flipped over to coverage of Boston's Independence Day fireworks display. But like I said, I was full of champagne. So I just wanted to make sure: did the canned musical accompaniment to the fireworks really segue from the usual unmitigated country-pop crap to a somewhat clumsy edit of Pavarotti singing "Nessun dorma," and then to the finale of Mahler 1? And then before the Mahler had died away, Craig Ferguson was making a bathroom joke? Did that really happen? Because that would be kind of weird.
Mahler for the Fourth. Weird.
10 comments:
Can't comment on the musical selections you may have heard played during the fireworks display, as I did not watch them. But champagne and my favorite movie? You two lead a good life. Though perhaps you should also watch The Thin Man movies so that Mo feels included, too.
Moe had a great time stealing then chewing up the cork from the champagne. He loves those things. (Does any other dog out there do this? We're wildly curious.)
You heard it right: Pavarotti in "Nessun Dorma" followed by the finale to the Mahler First.
Our jaws were dropping.
Another Philip Barry play that made it to the screen is Holiday. It has a similar cast and some imbibing. You might like it.
Bill: Having spent half my life as a confirmed Kate Hepburn maniac (particularly pre-WWII) I love Holiday (the second one—there is an earlier film version, I discovered once). Not incidentally—one of the best 1930s fake-modern piano concerti ever tossed into a film.
Keith Sclockhart has managed to turn the July 4th event into something I wouldn't waste my time on. I used to fault Fiedler for playing the 1812 Overture on the 4th. How patriotic: playing God Save the Czar! Schlockhart, playing only the "best parts" of that misbegotten tradition has turned the event into God Save the Chozzerei. Even that movie-music composer had better programming skills. Sad.
To clarify, it wasn't just any ol' country-pop crap, it was Toby Keith, singer of such famed tunes as, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," "Get Drunk and Be Somebody," "I Love This Bar," "Who's Your Daddy," "High Maintenance Woman," and my personal favorite "Beer for My Horses."
And I believe this was the tune we all heard accompanying the sparklers: "American Soldier."
Hope the hangover was more pleasant.
1. Our dog Susie loved a bit of champagne at New Year's, though she spent New Years Day in the doghouse nursing a hangover afterwards.
2. 20-plus years ago at the Brown University Film Society, the Hepburn-obsessed chairman led a sing-along before a showing of Bringing Up Baby, to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Club:
K-A-T, E-H-E, P-B-U-R-N.
Kate Hep-burn, Kate Hep-burn;
Forever Let Us Hold Our Cheekbones high! high! high!
(Okay. I guess you had to be there.)
3. I've always been pissed off at the 1812 being played on the fourth: a Russian piece about a battle with the French, only to have the latter routed later by the English, is a pretty sorry way to celebrate (y)our independence from England.
I wrote a classical music-murder mystery ("The Baton Rouge," which is at my bonotto.robert.googlepages.com website --the July 4 part's in Chapter 7) in which a young conductor uses, instead of the 1812, Ives' Second as the prompter for the fireworks. I'd *still* like to live long enough to see the finale of that symphony (with half-a-dozen American tunes all blaring at once) blaring with a whole lot of fireworks surrounding it...
As a champagne lover myself, I am curious: what's your favorite?
American Champagne, Sator. I'm not a communist!
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