Fool on the hill

A few days ago I watched one of the Steve Carrell's films, Dinner for Schmucks which is actually a remake of the 1998 french film Le diner de cons. It proved to be better than my expectations were. No doubt that I really like his acting, both in The office and in his films, but did not expect such a cool story and nice atmosphere. It is really a sweet film - and funny as well.

Its soundtrack, which we can hear in the perfect mice-dream-world intro and the closing title is Beatles' Fool on the hill. For a very long time I haven't heard such a clever and witty lyrics. This beautiful song was perfectly suitable for the film, and, if we are from the same kind, hearing these words can be a delight for our souls.

Day after day,

Alone on a hill,

The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still

But nobody wants to know him,

They can see that he's just a fool,

And he never gives an answer,

But the fool on the hill,

Sees the sun going down,

And the eyes in his head,

See the world spinning 'round.

Dinner for Schmucks - IMDB

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg1k_G6fRpQ

Malcolm in the middle theme

Have you ever seen Malcolm in the middle? The crazy and funny family which should be an ordinary family but maybe they have too much eccentricites. Yes, Malcolm is in the middle but just because he's telling us their story, the story of his parents and three brothers.

I've liked the intro for the very first time. Pictures of their life as seen in an older version in tv, pictures of cartoons and so on. Starting with the unmistakable "Yes, no, maybeee... I don't know... can you repeat the question?" lyrics. It's Boss of me by They might be giants. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Za8HggalY

And here's a very nice video made for another song by this band. It's Meet the elements.

A little bit more than... few days at the weekend house

Summer holiday again. The same place. The same house. The unexplicable feelings which belong to here - from the past, and to-be thoughts in the future.

And music - of course - is still with me. Let me dive into a little kitchen philosophy...

In my childhood there were a few albums I listened to and when we spent our holiday at the weekend house, I felt the long, often three, four weeks long holiday shouldn't happen without my favourite music - so I brought my walkman and favourite cassettes with me. Later an older cassette player got to the house and my family always brought some cassettes to listen to. The feeling improved, louder music played and we could hear it while sitting on the terrace. Then years passed by and when the mp3 age started it was obvious that the walkman has to be replaced with the mp3 player. I took long walks with my little gadget and that feeling of free was really new and cool. The next step didn't make a big change, it was only the introduction of iPod in my life. More space, smaller player, and I love it. Hope Apple feels happy for this advertisement. And now, this year there's a notebook and mobile internet with us, so everything's accessible. This is the state of total freedom, which is really cool, but also...

What about the older feelings? Long, grey mornings in my teenager years in the autumn or winter when I listened to lp's from my father's collection. The hissing sound between tracks - from the lp player in the room, or from the walkman right in my ears. And no pc noise. When music comes from a furniture. Yes, a real pair of loudspeekers can be a part of the furniture of a room. And the cds? Cd shelves, of course. Another furniture, which, I think isn't ugly but cool. Posters on the wall, and not Windows backgrounds. Maybe now you're starting to feel this mood. I realize it every once in a while, and now I got my latest expereince here, of course in the weekend house. As CSN's Just a song before I go played by the cassette player. Sound quality? Who cares!? It's even better.

The passenger

Being an Up in the air fan, the song playing in one of the trailers kept floating in my mind and I felt I had to investigate a little bit. As it isn't part of the soundtrack, I couldn't get the title, but they sing I am the passenger, so YouTube immediately helped me as almost always. It turned out to be an Iggy Pop song which surprised me, because I thought it plays harder music, like metal. Now it's part of my home radio station in iTunes. Or on my iPod, when I'm a passenger...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSFV6RhdsNs

trailer:
http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/

Few days at the weekend house... Just a song before I go

Weekend house. I think for all of those who spent their summers in a weekend house, it became a new expression, an other world, where the time isn't like in the city. For me, that house up on the hill above the lake-side city, Balatonalmádi is a real treasure and quite a big part of my brain, where my memories settle. It's a feeling which contains many little things: asking my father answerable and non-answerable questions about the sky, gardening with my grandfather, taking a trip to the mountain, sitting on the terrace as the night fall down, watching the summer night sky and the stars, the long, rainy days with the noise of the water pouring down from the eaves just next to my room outside, the childish fears caused by strange noises from the garden - most of these remained -, the camp fire and frying bacon, and the "Sounds of the night" which was a personal show created by me and my cousin, performed it to our parents but mostly for ourselves... just to pick the most important memories.



Few years ago, when none of our casette-players worked yet at home, we brought our casettes down to the weekend-house, where we can listen to it. One of these casettes is a Crosby, Stills & Nash compilation, made by my father many years ago. I hadn't known about this band before, but two years ago, when I first listened to it, it became one of my favourite casettes, and on every holiday it's a "must-hear" casette there.

Crosby, Stills & Nash (often called shortly as CSN) and later, when Neil Young joined the group, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) was a rock/folk band, making most of their well-known songs in 1969 and the seventies. Their best albums are Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969), Déjà vu (1970), and CSN (1977).

Just a song before I go is a track from the album CSN, a short, slower song with a little melancholy. Written by Graham Nash, just in 15 minutes en route to an airport. It's my favourite, that mentioned casette starts with it. I remember listening to it in my room, lying on my bed, as the afternoon sunlight break its way into my room through the shades - "I had to be alone".

The original version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRP6GR35bQE
A live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Ji8HzTQl4

Album version:

Shoreline

I first got acquainted with this song in the performance of Anna Ternheim, who's a Swedish singer-songwriter, one of my favourites in this genre. She made it very simple, but this simplicity has a cause. With the clear piano sounding she made it more serious than the original version. I didn't even think that someone else wrote it. And when the harmonica starts (on the album version), it creates a fascinating feeling for me, which don't want to stop - yes, it plays for a long time, in a monotonic way.

Later I noticed that it originally belongs to a Swedish indie/emo band, called Broder Daniel, and it's very far from the acoustic version. In spite of that the genre "rock" isn't my favourite, let alone emo, I like this version, too, because that great melody has the same effect on me as in the version of Anna Ternheim. And the melody of singing has little changes, which are good, I think.

ever since I was eight or nine

I've been standing on the shoreline

always waiting for something lasting

loose your hunger, you loose your way

get confused and you fade away

oh this town

kills you when you are young

oh this town

kills you when you are young

I'm not the boy I used to be

this town has got the youth of me

all eyes turn hollow

from the work of sorrow

standing on the paving

by the office building

they've got so much to do

never time for you

we are shadows

oh we're shadows

shadows in the alley

you die when you're young

you die when you're young

you die when you're young

Broder Daniel version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djLRO8wjdKw

Anna Ternheim version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDfbrdQKwjk

The police - Reggatta de blanc

It was so hot today that I had to choose an old favourite, an album from the summer two years ago, when I used to listen to it. If I created new weird tags, I would stick a "we broke up and there's a new life coming" tag on it. Yes, there are some kinds of music which you have to listen to forget, to feel free, to get happier and carefree. Police did a great job for this aim - perhaps these properties take effect only on me, I don't know it for sure... but take a try if you feel it.

Many of us don't know that Sting - before his private music-making - was the leader of the rock group, The police. But I go further: he started his career as a jazz bassist. So go back in time: if you know what is Sting's music like, Police will be different. It was simple, cool, free, and sometimes funny, totally vivid, and full of energy. One of my favourite is Reggatta de blanc (and the three best albums are ~, Synchronicity, and Zenyatta mondatta).

Sting's mid-high toned voice suits well on the music which is based on cool rhythms and drum patterns. And there's a slight touch of reggae in their tracks, making it interesting. The album starts with the well-known Message in the bottle, to set on the mood, but later a few slower songs also appear: for example my special favourite: The bed's too big without you, which is a nice expression by the words and there's a cool bass melody in the whole track. And in addition, the album features Walking on the Moon and Bring on the night, too, not mentioning some funny stuff as On any other day, which's lyrics is the following:

There's a house on my street

And it looks real neat

I'm the chap who lives in it

There's a tree on the sidewalk

There's a car by the door

I'll go for a drive in it

And when the wombat comes

He will find me gone

He'll look for a place to sit

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

Cut off my fingers in the

Door of my car

How could I do it?

My wife is proud to tell me

Of her love affairs

How could she do this to me?

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

Throw down the morning papers

And spill my tea

I don't know what's wrong with me

The cups and plates are in a

Conspiracy

I'm covered in misery

My wife has burned the scrambled eggs

The dog just bit my leg

My teenage daughter ran away

My fine young son has turned out gay

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

And it would be ok on any other day

So this album mix these things, and this is what makes it great, a great leisure for a summer day.

Message in a bottle (live Earth):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfoBHH8_Pk

Walking on the Moon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxAPmKLWIyA

The bed's too big without you (special live version):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24w_2OAg-fU