FFF 9-23: Is it worth the risk?

An even number
A poem
A link



I usually don’t put my commentary first, but today I’m going to, and it's a long one, so hit the bathroom before reading. 

This picture, this challenge, was hard for me because to me this is a sad picture, it’s lonely and cold, the end shot of a 3 minute montage of sports cars shot at low angles, quick cuts of beautiful people laughing, drinking, doing lines of coke on a glass table top.  It’s shots of LA in too-bright sun and long lines of palm trees shot from an over-priced convertible as you cruise through Latino neighborhoods laughing at the poor people then running like hell from gang-bangers when you cross over into the wrong side of the tracks and finding yourself get stuck in a cul-de-sac.  This picture belongs in the opening title of a movie about pain, disillusionment, alienation, anger, rich kids killing their parents and beating up their girlfriends and running from the law until they find solace at the end of a cop’s final shot.  I couldn’t get these images out of my head as I searched for music to go along with it.

But it wasn’t just the music, it was the combination of music and lyrics that challenged me, I found several songs that started off right but their words were too happy, their rhymes too easy, it was maddening.  I spent a 3 hour flight home going through my iPod looking, listening, to music that didn’t  fit.  I put 66 songs on the play list to review.  66.

Some of them were Disney (Be Prepared from the Lion King and Jack’s Lament from Nightmare Before Christmas), some were dance and rave music with few sensible words at all, they were just fast, angry, and hard.  They were distant.

This picture screams disjoint with the contrasting light and darkness.  She is almost naked, naked where it matters and he is not only dressed, but hidden where she is exposed.  She is unequal in every way.  Who can run away or fight back in high heels?  It is a picture of power, disparity, and, as the music of various types rang through my head it was her story as much as his.

Black Celebration by dépêche mode almost made it to the top, but I didn’t like the live version I had and I didn’t have time to find the studio version which is think is a bit darker.  I was surprised at how many songs I had, 9614, and couldn’t find one that I liked to match this particular picture and mood. 

I thought of how the woman got there, what is, really, her story and why is she in such a weak position.  This is not a dom/sub picture, there are no restraints, she is not in any of the iconic “traditional” poses from that genre, she seems to be clinging to him as he is to her.

What is the cause of such desperation?  What drives such longing that puts her in his arms?

66 songs ran through my head as I flew and none of them captured the essence of what I wanted to impose on the picture. 

I thought, perhaps, on a happier note that it might be the opening moment in the spotlight to an erotic review.  The male and female lead are hidden in the dark until the lead spot comes on revealing her beautiful figure, that perfect ass, pulled open and exposed by a strong partner and her ability to show herself off without hesitation of apology.

Helmut Newton came to mind with his pictures that objectified women in the truest sense, he shot them frequently to look like maniquins, objest d’art, separated from their reality.

I liked Crooked Teeth by Death Cab for Cutie but the mood was too upbeat,

I knew I had made a horrible call,

and now the state line felt like the Berlin Wall,

and there was no doubt which side I was on

Hmmm, Hmmmm, Hmm Hmmm…

You can’t find nothing at all,

If there was nothing there all along…….

Stable Song by DCFC starts off just right if I was telling her story the morning after, or even his from the morning of the encounter as he wakes up in his 800 count silk sheets and look around at an empty house knowing that non of his wealth has found him what he wants and that tonight would be like so many others (and Idea that might come back, so don’t ignore it too quickly)

Why worry now by Dire straights, one of my all time favorite bands, almost had it, but it’s too mournful, too thoughtful and the man in this picture is not give to deep thinking.  He exists in a fog; he goes through his days wanting more that money can buy, yet knowing only the art of seduction through wealth and disdain through the misuse of the same.  It’s a good song, but it is a love story between two deeply connect people, and this picture is not that.

I added a few more of theirs to my list as I moved through their catalog, Romeo and Juliet, Sultans of Swing (him as a playboy club owner who gets the groupie girls at will), One World (guitar karaoke), just because the beat has him walking down the street in a $1,000 suit and a sense of dissatisfaction with the world around him. This isn’t a guy who goes without what he wants very often.  This is where I got to all of my George Michael’s tracks, sue me, I grew up a long in the 80’s and if ever there was a symbol of glitzy pop success it was Wham and George. 

Sweet little baby on a big wide doorstep

She needs a mother but her mother is dead

Just another hooker that the lucky forget

Just another hooker, it happens every day.

I almost pulled the last two lines out for the theme but it would be so out of context that I couldn’t do it.

I went through a large portion of my Trance music only because I picture the two of them meeting in a high-end club in Rio, or Monaco, maybe (pronounced maaaaaaybe with a strong sense of doubt) Miami or New York, but certainly not Los Angeles.  There is angst and loathing in LA, but no reflection , not enough of that old money guilt and sense of emptiness that is bread into you buy a lifetime of money where victory is not only expected in all conquests, but assumed at every level.

Hallelujah by Brandi Carlile was a strong (top 4) contender for it it heartbreaking rendition of a ode to loneliness and need.  Thought his song was memorialized by a truly awful version by Leonard Cohen.  (OK, maybe not totally awful, but there is more than one note in the song)  Brandi’s version carries the tune on the sharp edge of song and pain and evokes more of that quivering lip tipping point than Cohen’s gravel throated monstrosity.

I got to one of my favorites Heart it races (Trizzy’s Rusty Tin Can Mix)  bringing me back into the opening credit montage mode.  I had never looked up this video before today, the link I knew is here, the first one is good but a totally different feel, but I have to LOOOVE the original. What a crack up.

Three Dog Night, The Doors, the Eagles, A little hop hop, , more trance, a Basia confection, a bunch of songs from KPMG.com (pick up their song of the day feed ASAP via iTunes) that were bluesy and sad but not dark enough, and finally, Pink Floyd’s Hey You As a child of the 80’s this was the sad song.  It mean that you were alone whether you knew it or not and that you would soon be dead, and probably in some horrible fashion.  It was the song you cranked up when a girlfriend left or a cute girl said no.  It was the song for teenage anger, sadness, lost nights, wasted days, and it became the anthem sung by a million broken hearts.

Hey you ! out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me
Hey you ! Standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles, can you feel me

Hey you ! don't help them to bury the light
Don't give in without a fight.

Hey you ! out there on your own
sitting naked by the phone would you touch me

Hey you ! with your ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out would you touch me

Hey you ! would you help me to carry the stone
Open your heart, I'm coming home

But it was only a fantasy
The wall was too high as you can see
No matter how he tried he could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain.

Hey you ! out there on the road
Always doing what you're told, can you help me
Hey you ! out there beyond the wall
Breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me
Hey you ! don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

But, in the end, it was too much, too cliché, like “The Wall” itself, co-opted by too many for their own purposes to be personal any more. 

But, and there is always a but, my mood lifted a bit between last night and today. 


I chose Dido’s Do you have a little time for me? 

My FFF entries (His and hers) are below two different versions of the video.  I believe the first video is the "official" version, but I think I like the 2nd one better.

To those who are bored and just searching for a little FFF fluff, I thank you for reading this far down. If you skipped to the end, or just saw another 1746 word extravaganza and gave up, I forgive you. The title of my blog is more accurate on some days than others.

To Lexi, thank you for a truly enriching challenge. I haven't spent three hous in my music for a long time.

To others, thank you.
 

He leaned back against the wall and felt her bare skin against his chest.  He had waited for her for months.  E-mail, calls, flirting, occasional pictures from the road.  It was more than he could take to wait, to wait until she was ready for him.  She was taller than expected, more beautiful than imagined, cute, relaxed, and warm in his arms.  He held her close and breathed in her neck, longing for that moment when they knew.  He let his right hand slip down her perfect skin until he held her open, close, feeling her body melt in to his.  His nerves began to fade, his heart slowed, his breathing deepened, and he hoped that she would be different from all the others.

He was warm, and strong, and she rested against his chest as his hands explored her skin.  Was this it? She thought quietly, Was this worth the risk?