Jerusalem

Finally after many years of traveling I had a opportunity to actually visit places I never been before.

So far, the biggest thrill was recent visit to Israel and of course Jerusalem - though our tourist excursion was rushed, exhausting and left us utterly tired afterwards (2 hours drive back and forth, lots of walking, I fell asleep as soon as I returned back to the ship) I was very happy to visit this ancient city. The moment I stepped inside the city walls there was a wonderful déjà vu feeling of recognition and I was floating on a cloud from happiness. It is truly wonderful old town full of historical architecture and everything is the way I like: crowd didn't bother me, neither people clicking with cameras and mobile phones, I understand it is modern world kind of pilgrimage now (though if you ask me,I would legally forbid all the electronic gadgets because they annoy me). I also had a good luck to visit Jerusalem in December so the weather was actually very nice,almost like a Springtime.

As for religious aspect of the surroundings, well I am not really into that - I watched it all more fascinated with town's awesome history and centuries behind these buildings than stone kissing that was present everywhere. If we are following archeological research, all those places were always actually somewhere else, either little down the road or a bit on the left or down the hill (or somewhere else completely) so it might be that people actually worship wrong stones but never mind - I guess that perhaps just being here in Jerusalem is enough and people probably feel happy and excited in their own way, if they believe, that is enough. My own reaction when faced with stones kissing was confused step back since I am not really into totemism and something inside rebels against outside adoration (it makes much more sense as intense spiritual experience from inside) but I must admit that most of the churches I saw were surprisingly simple and not ever-decorated like they sometimes appear in Europe. The atmosphere of the whole town was very spiritual and one can clearly feel this is a special place from historical,religious or any perspective.

Between other places, I have also visited famous Western Wall that separates town between Jewish and Muslim parts - I placed my hand on the wall and again felt wonderful déjà vu feeling but there was nothing sad about it, more like some ancient DNA recognition of place. Its difficult to talk about it without sounding a looney but I do have my own little opinion about reincarnation and can't explain in any other way why certain places have effect on me. Just as I am sure that I was here before, I am sure I will come again. It doesn't mean that I was jewish or anything like that, but perhaps someone far down the road was a soldier or a pilgrim who had visited Jerusalem before me and that is why my heart felt so happy here. Truly wonderful day.

"Pilgrim" by Timothy Findley

I knew canadian writer Timothy Findley from his excellent novel "Not wanted on voyage" so was naturally excited to lay my hands on "Pilgrim".

Than to my biggest surprise, I realized it all sounds familiar and I had probably read it years ago (wouldn't be surprised to actually find that I have another copy somewhere) but the writing style and the story was so beautiful that I truly enjoyed and upon finishing the last page I was so moved that I could just start reading it all over again. "Pilgrim" is a perfect match between interesting story and superb writing style - sometimes stories are great but writing clumsy or vice versa, not in this case, it is actually one of the best novels I have ever read and I am a lifetime reader.

Pilgrim is the name of a newly arrived patient in a Swiss sanatorium - he consistently tries to kill himself and apparently has no will to live anymore, refuses to talk and the only hint about his past comes from talking in his sleep and his diaries where surprising amount of detailed descriptions of various historical figures intrigues his doctor who is no less than Carl Jung himself.

Jung is the only one in a medical team who actually does not push to bring patients "back to the ground" and respects their different perspective of life, clearly saddened and frustrated when his colleagues don't understand this approach and force logic here deeper understanding might have worked better. Trough the novel there is push-and-pull between him and Pilgrim who is clearly superior intelligence between the two and refuses to co-operate.

It's not only the story but understanding of how people behave and feel that makes me truly love and enjoy Findley's writing - sometimes he simply sketches certain characters that appear only shortly on a page or two and they are equally unforgettable as anybody else. There is a lonely lady who happen to be in the right time & place to take a photo and later we never heard about her again, except we know she lived lonely life full of "what if" and remembering a man who might have loved her, if he only asked. Or a spanish shepherd mentioned in only one chapter but his story somehow stays with the reader trough the rest of the novel,I would love to have the whole book only about him. When the story eventually came to an end I was truly excited - of course it is not the end because we know Pilgrim probably just starts new chapter of his life - I absolutely loved this novel and from now will buy any book by Timothy Findley without hesitation, its really my biggest recommendation.

The Truth Will Out by Brenda James and William Rubinstein

The question of true identity of person(s) who stand behind Shakespeare's masterpieces is a very interesting and intriguing one - even thought the mainstream opinion still holds opinion that no other that "master from Stratford" wrote them, we now surprisingly little about his life except that he left school at the age of 13, have never travelled abroad and could hardly be expected to know court rituals, astrology and science of the time not to mention detailed description of Italian cities. At his death bed William Shakespeare writes what pieces of furniture to be divided between his family and not one word about literary work.

There are numerous candidates of "real Shakespeare" - mostly aristocrats and people connected to the court, even two women (Emilia Lainer and Mary Sidney) who could have hide behind pseudonym but the most interesting theory is about "group work" where various authors used Shakespeare as front man for their political agenda camouflaged as theatre plays. Now we have newest discovery, forgotten aristocrat Sir Henry Neville who had a gift to see but not be seen in a crowd - Neville was gifted writer but hid behind his diplomatic status and is life actually mirrors Shakespeare's plays closely - for example when plays are happy,Neville enjoyed his court position, when plays were dark Neville was imprisoned in Tower for his role in a political coup. There are many interesting little twists and turns in this book written by Brenda James and William Rubinstein (strangely enough, australian research team came to same conclusion independently) and though it makes sense, I could not shake a feeling that it's all a nitpicking - way too much "if", "possibly" and "must have" to actually convince me. It is true that James and Rubinstein believe passionately in their theory but somehow it just sounds far stretched in lack of concrete proof except guesswork. Yes, Neville travelled to Italy, knew the places Shakespeare describes in detail, spoke fluently foreign languages and had privileged education fitting for someone of his background, however after I finished the book the main impression was that I could be pointed as true Shakespeare if someone puts his mind to it.

Sir Henry Neville (curiously enough, nicknamed "Falstaff") is just one of the many aristocrats supposedly educated enough to have been "real Shakespeare". Its interesting mystery and I am still curious about it but not totally convinced - if you ask me, both versions sound possible. I see no problem with Stratford man showing genuine talent in spite of his background or perhaps someone other hiding behind theatre owner and financing public displays of political propaganda carefully camouflaged. Let's hope some documents will eventually be find and real Shakespeare finally get recognition.

Venice calling

The recovery from operation has come to and end - I got a new job coming and leaving home today for another 6 months, that means less writing here but surely I will find occasional moment for my musings. When I was on vacation, it gave me freedom to write almost daily and sometimes even few essays, now I am starting my usual ship drill with far less time for myself, sometimes not even enough for sleep, not to mention writing a blog.

Today I will be in Venice, Italy again. If everything works out as planned, will have overnight rest in a hotel before embarking on another ship tomorrow and than sailing away for another half a year. I actually decided against taking so many books with me, because it turned out too much to carry - I have to be practical sometimes so just selected a few than can fit in my backpack, surely I will collect many more along the way. Teddy Bear goes with me of course, he always does.

Stay tuned!

"Decoy" (1946)

"Decoy" is an interesting and completely forgotten 1946 film noir with excellent Jean Gillie as a main female lead.

Gillie is actually one of the most interesting female baddies in these classic old movies as she will do everything to get her boyfriend out of the prison, just to find where he keeps the hidden money. Not that she loves him - it's clear she enjoys his presents, clothes and perfumes - but cleverly she twists several men around her little finger in order to make them do what she wants, including aggressive gangster, naive doctor and even a police detective. The plot has interesting twist where Gillie finds out that body can be brought back to life after it has been killed in a gas chamber, so she arranges doctor to steal and revive her prison boyfriend who is on a death row, in order to get the secret out of him. The guy actually comes back to life like some new Frankestein and stumbles towards horrified Gillie who might be calm as a snake but this is a bit much for her. I won't explain the whole story here because I believe film reviews should just cover introduction without spoiling anything for potential audience but somehow this little forgotten movie works very well even in its limited budget and its a nice discovery from a wonderful golden years of cinema.

Her husband Jack Bernhard directed this movie and it was noticed as one of the most interesting female roles in film noir cinema at the time.

Sadly, beautiful Jean Gillie died of pneumonia at the age of 33 so this is the reason why she is not better remembered today.

Dionne sings Dionne (1998)

While other of her contemporaries fell aside long ago, always poised and elegant Dionne Warwick keeps her head above the water with style, even though big recording companies are not behind her now - as usual, ageism promotes fresh faces to a teenage audiences, completely ignoring the fact that veterans are still alive & well and have lost none of their talent.

The case in point is Warwick who once was best-selling artist with classic music legacy behind her. She was the muse behind best work by Burt Bacharach and amassed some nice pop hits later in 1970s and 1980s but her mellow pop somehow got pushed aside with rap and what not. This album tries valiantly to prove that Warwick is still contemporary singer, even if this means re-recording some of her older material in a new modern arrangements. In most of the cases this means that new versions don't bring anything really earth-shattering, exceptions are completely re-imaniged and joyful "Always Something There To Remind Me" that wouldn't be out of place on Paul Simon's "Graceland" album and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" dressed up in tropical clothes. These two songs works so well that one wonders why producers were not so brave with the rest of Warwick's pop classics instead of keeping them more or less the same. To beef up the album we also have handful of new ballads that present all the magic of Warwick's still magic, husky voice that now sounds deeper than ever before (I always preferred her mature voice to a young 1960s Warwick). New songs are all very pretty and show that Warwick don't need any "modernization" to keep her interesting as she sounds most comfortable in slow-burning ballads, the best of the bunch being probably "All Kinds Of People" that I remember from a Jerry Butler old album, truly a soulful gem with a spiritual meaning and without any vocal excess popular today. Ending on a spiritual note, "Humbly I Pray" is a gentle gospel song that tells a lot about mature Warwick at this point in her life and career.

I might not be so enamored with re-recordings of old hits but love new material.

"The Uninvited" (1944)

The previous film I mentioned was "Laura" with its haunting music theme that became a pop standard. Imagine my surprise when I started watching "The Uninvited"(1944) and during opening heard a melody I quickly recognized as "Stella by Starlight" by Victor Young! Yes, this song was actually introduced in this movie about haunted house.

"The Uninvited" looks and feels very much like movies by Val Lewton ("Cat people") but it was only inspired with his work, director here is Lewis Allen. Apparently "Rebecca" left a lot of people scratching heads and wanting to do something similar so there were quite a few movies made in early 1940s emulating gothic approach with strange houses with even stranger past,dead people who won't go away and always a female villain somewhere in there. Today almost completely forgotten Ray Milland was a busy man that year as he made "The Uninvited" back to back with Fritz Lang's "Ministry of Fear" - here again he is a good natured guy who just happens to be surrounded with most bizarre twists and turns of the story. Milland and his sister stumble upon a very pretty house on a atlantic coast (dangerously close to cliffs,if you ask me,just asking for accident to happen) and decide to buy it on the spot even though they are warned that previous tenants mentioned disturbing noise - from than on story goes in expected direction and though is an old fashioned movie it still works fine for people like me who love old black & white movies. Strangely enough I wasn't really interested in the main characters but really noticed completely off the wall part of Barbara Everest as "Miss Bird" patient in sanatorium and she was cutest little neurotic.

The best thing about this movie (along with a beautiful Victor Young song) is surprising turn by excellent Cornelia Otis Skinner who shows up in a second part of the movie - so far we never had a glimpse of her and suddenly she arrives on a screen like a dark cloud towering above everybody else. She is very authoritative and strong willed owner of mentioned sanatorium and somehow spiritual sister of the housekeeper from "Rebecca" - very soon we get that Skinner has obsession with a beautiful lady who was previous owner of the haunted house and there is something between the lines that suggest that she is either a lesbian or a loony herself (which in 1944 was probably the same thing - the only way gay characters were ever shown in a movies back than was like madmen, villains or caricatures). Just as unexpectedly as she arrives on the screen, Skinner is than unceremoniously dropped out and we never heard about her again, which is a pity as she was by far the most interesting person in the movie - I cared for her much more than for Gail Russell (Stella from the song) who was supposed to be innocent centre of ghosts attentions. We actually see ghosts on a few occasions but this was quite unnecessary because things are scarier when not seen,in my opinion.

I was so intrigued with Skinner that I needed to check her on internet and yes, just as I expected she had a strong theatre background.

Antologija CD Box by Josipa Lisac

As newly independent Croatia broke away from the past, the biggest recording company "Jugoton" became "Croatia records" and started milking its archives (the trend that unfortunately continued to this day) instead of focusing on new artists. Perhaps 50+ years of documented music were somehow more interesting than new recordings,who knows. In all honesty we can admit that golden years of pop music are behind us now because the whole profession had more dignity and meaning in times when people were not concerned with harsh reality of survival like today.

However, the first artist who was honored with CD box of complete works (studio albums) in Croatia was not any of the biggest commercial movers & shakers because they come and go,but somebody who endured decades and inspired countless other musicians - undisputed rock queen Josipa Lisac, brave and eccentric lady who never sold tons of records but from the start enjoyed massive amount of respect for her talent. I remember clearly when this CD box came out that my girlfriend nonchalantly said "well,who else?" about the fact that from the whole recorded history of "Jugoton"/"Croatia records" Lisac was the one with legacy worth releasing complete on CD. Where other artists had occasional spark of inspiration in their times, Lisac was the one who continuously went step above expectations and stayed contemporary, no matter what musical trends were in fashion.

As her complete studio albums collection shows, Lisac was exceptional voice from the very start in late 1960s and sounded intriguing even in the festival "schlager" music of the day.,surrounded with strings,huge orchestras and bombastic orchestration. Instead of staying there, she moved quickly towards jazz-rock territory and distanced herself from generation that would fall out of fashion very soon,building reputation as a rock singer and in process winning younger audience who supported her trough decades. Most of her output here was composed by her own composer/partner Karlo Metikoš who worked as her teacher/mentor/Pygmalion and though their collaboration is now classic and legendary, I wish she worked with other people some more (everybody gets very upset when I mention this). The point in the case are several uninspired early 1980s LPs and than sudden renaissance with album "Boginja" (The Goddess) where other composers got chance to shine - it was her most commercially successful release in many years and gave her career completely new wings.

Along with Lisac's usual studio albums (mostly presented as two-on-one CD) this box gives us complete recording of rock-opera "Gubec beg" (1975) and english version of album "Made in USA" that was originally released in croatian version in 1979. Of course I had all this stuff from the times of their original release (in multiple versions, tapes AND vinyl) but had to get CD box as well. For a completist like me extra CD with singles and guest performances would have been added bonus,but unfortunately this time we got only albums. So far only Oliver Dragojević got the similar treatment and his discography is far less varied than Lisac who worked in jazz,rock,pop,classical and many other genres. Good thing about this CD box is that it introduced her work to a generation of younger audience who was perhaps not aware of all this.

Raduj se srce moje by Josipa Lisac (1972)

Again, recording company "Jugoton" shows some strange logic by releasing new song as a single backed by four years old number from their archives.

It wouldn't matter really but singer had completely changed since 1969 when B side was originally performed on local choice for Eurovision festival. That year she was still "biggest music discovery of the year" and "child wonder" with awesome deep alto voice who worked her way trough some bombastic big band orchestrations like "Još te čekam" (I'm still waiting) that doesn't sound any different from tons of other big bombastic numbers of the time. The voice is almost intimidating in its power and matureness but the song is frankly,weak.

Flash forward in 1971 when Karlo Metikoš enters the scene and is so impressed with young singer that he decides to take composers role specially for her. He knows about music business, being first rock star in the country a decade ago and works as a sort of Pygmalion with Lisac who experiments with different sound and uses more pronounced nasal sound as her main trademark since than. Metikoš might have written other songs for her before,but "Raduj se,srce moje" (Be happy,heart of mine) is officially first song recorded by him as a composer for Lisac and it immediately brings her out of depressing ballads she sang until than, the song is actually upbeat and uses same folk motive like the ones Metikoš would use later for their classic "Dnevnik jedne ljubavi" album in 1973. It was fairly sized hit on pop charts and therefore strangely ignored later on official compilations. Perhaps it was seen as only experiment for their future work together. Metikoš would use this kind of upbeat folk motives again some 16 years later in the song "Ja bolujem".

Samujem u samoći sama (1971) single by Josipa Lisac

Very interesting single from a time when Josipa Lisac was still a very young artists finding her place in pop music.

Both songs were performed on than-popular festivals and in both cases Lisac works with young composers instead of old veterans who were offended that such a young girl prefers her own generation. (I remember reading contemporary magazine articles describing her as "spoiled" and "impossible to work with")

Young Zdenko Runjić who would later became true hit maker wrote "Samujem u samoći sama" that nicely works a sequel to his "Kapetane moj" from a previous year. It's a dark ballad about loneliness and Lisac bravely thunders trough some depressing lyrics but brings some interesting vocal twists to a song that would sound boring if recorded by anybody else. She is very intense and has great affinity for this kind of ballads.

Great eccentric from Split, our own Tom Waitts born like Toma Bebić here wrote "Sve majke svijeta uz more" and the song is tailored for Lisac who sings about mothers cursing the sea where their sons were lost. Arrangements were done by Ićo Kelemen ("Oluja") who clearly enjoyed working with Lisac and who surrounds her with some almost cinematic sweeps that must have shocked audience used to sunny mainstream jingles of the time.

"Život moj" by Josipa Lisac (1970)

"Život moj" (My life) was true blue-eyed soul where young Josipa Lisac breaks away with huge orchestrated ballads and introduces modern contemporary sound to a big festival stages. The song was composed by great Arsen Dedić who probably never dreamed that his poetic lyrics would be topped with her screaming performance, clearly inspired by Janis joplin. Backed with actually very good r&b band "Grupa MI" from Šibenik, the song was a huge hit at the time and placed young singer right in the center of the pop scene as opposite to mainstream "schlager" music she clearly wanted to distance herself from. She could go commercial route if inclined so but luckily refused to sell out and followed her imagination, even if this didn't make much profit. It did worked like magic on a young generation who will grow up to be her faithful audience in decades coming and will support her when everybody else faded.

B side is equally interesting gloomy number "Spustila se kiša" (The rain has fallen) unjustly forgotten now but still shines today as prime example of early 1970s power of a singer without competition on a local scene. The most interesting thing about it is that it was composed by Ićo Kelemen (who also wrote classic "Oluja" for her) and Mišo Dolezal whose daughter Sanja will became huge pop star in 1980s and later.

"Oluja" by josipa Lisac (1970)

Ićo Kelemen wrote thundering "Oluja" (The storm) as big number for that year pop festival in Opatija. As it was the rule,the song was performed by two different artists with slightly changed arrangements but nobody remembers version by "Mladi levi" today. If you check LP with the songs from "Opatija '70" all the other performers were cutesy and sugary while Lisac screams and shocks - it could be pointed that she ushered rock in a Trojan horse in the mainstream pop music.

B side is completely forgotten today but actually very interesting song from another festival (Split '70) where Lisac was again artist who had to compete with another version on the same stage. If I understand correctly, "Osamljenost" (Solitude) was performed by some foreign singers and Lisac was our own variation on music by certain A.Spyropulos. It's doom and gloom, heartbreak and disaster but Lisac sounds fine in it.

One interesting thing is - recording company "Jugoton" was apparently slow in catching up with new trends and instead of releasing "Oluja" like a hit single at the time of actual festival performance, they waited until the summer to use new song for B side. Completely wasted opportunity.

Josipa Lisac first single (1969)

Impossibly young josipa Lisac started in pop band "Zlatni Akordi" and they regularly played at local clubs and dances,mostly covering contemporary foreign hits but when the time came for her own solo introduction, she had to play the game and sing on popular mainstream pop festivals where wider audience will hear her music. It was all fine to be liked locally in the clubs but real success was a big festival stage happening that was covered nationally.

"Naša ljubav" (Our love) is bombastic ballad typical of the times,performed on Zagreb festival 1969 - nothing extraordinary here,only that voice thundering above some forgettable lyrics and the music is dangerously close to a waltz. This is sound of a young artist still finding her sound and place. "Nitko nije kao ti" (Nobody like you) is much better, beat song about no good lover who cheats and lies and girl understand this but is still head over hills in love with him. It has rhythm and is much closer to what Lisac was doing at the beginning while in a group - everything about this song suggest young Cher from her 1960s recordings, with similar style of singing and the sound is very much the same, specially when Lisac dives into deep notes.

Josipa Lisac 1969 single

Very young Josipa Lisac (19 at the time) spreading her wings as a solo artist - only a year ago she was main vocalist in pop band "Zlatni Akordi" and now she was noticed enough to get her own spot. I am not completely sure this was really "solo" because I read somewhere that guys still backed her in the studio and in live performances - they can still be heard in the background on top of some out-of-place strings.

What is truly fascinating is how developed and rich was the voice of the young girl who would eventually grow up to be first lady of croatian rock - she might have been only 19 but this is sensual alto with instantly recognizable sound. In the future she will change a bit and add several more decorations to her style (some would say this was not really necessary) so this is really interesting document to hear queen of mannerism in her early embryo-period before ornamentations took over.

A side is melancholic ballad that could have been rock if not for intrusive strings that place recording in the late 1960s. The voice is sensational and Lisac sails trough it with confidence and gentleness impossible to comprehend for such young age. (Until you realize she was already a pro,singing in classical choirs from early age) Side B is unfortunately a filler, undeveloped lyrical and musical idea with some interesting guitar solo but nothing worth mentioning. This forgotten little single was never anthologized or released on compilations(and probably right so,since later she developed strong repertoire with Karlo Metikoš as her own composer) until some 40 years later A side was finally included in Cd box "Kad je Rock bio mlad" (When Rock was young) about development of Rock in our country.

Laura (1944)

Since I'm on the roll with the old black & movies, I decided to treat myself with one of the best known film noir masterpieces and see "Laura" for the very first time.

It was orgasmic. Wonderful. What a script.I am in love in this movie. Everything about it is just perfect - camera, black & white shadows, beautiful lead actress , her portrait on the wall, great Dana Andrews whom I really liked in "The best years of our lives". .. and the best of all Clifton Webb in a role of impeccably elegant,cynical journalist with such sharp and witty lines that I have to control myself not to use them next time somebody annoys me. He plays sort of pygmalion to Laura from the title and introduces her to high society proudly displaying his beautiful creation to everybody and spends evenings with her in the restaurants, dining and reading his articles. It's all wonderful to him but Laura eventually start noticing other, younger, broad-shouldered men who have other qualities and Webb does everything to shame and disqualify them in her eyes. Somewhere along the way you actually start feeling sorry for him because he must be terribly lonely in his elegant apartment full of antique furniture and books.

Than of course there is a murder, lot of people involved and everybody is a possible suspect. Laura's own aunt (Judith Anderson) appears cold blooded enough to be a murderess herself and she certainly have eye on Laura's hunky boyfriend, although she is perfectly aware that the guy is just a gigolo but she would do anything to get him for herself. Hunky boyfriend is actually very young Vincent Price before he became horror movie star and for me he is actually the weakest link in the movie because I find his acting wooden and unconvincing - but than again, he is supposed to be bird brained and potential suspect so perhaps he is right for this. And a wonderful Dana Andrews as the jaw clenching detective who can't compete with Clifton Webb in polite behavior or social finesse but still finds himself falling in love for this strange woman everybody is talking about.

There is a wink towards famous Hitchcock's "Rebecca" made four years earlier - Laura is a woman everybody is obsessed with and she is murdered - friends and colleagues talk about her in her apartment, her portrait hangs on the wall, the music is all about her (famous song "Laura") and naturally detective can't help but falling for a ghost. The script and dialogues are so good I could watch this again and again.

Old Hollywood classics: "I married a witch" and "The thin man"

Recently I watched not one but two excellent old black & white classic Hollywood movies that deserve to be mention here.

"I married a witch" (1942) is a delicious comedy about witches revenging on descendants of their persecutors who now in a present time have political ambitions. Veronica Lake is delightful witch Jennifer who amusedly focuses her attention on Mr.Wooley who proudly displays portraits of his ancestors on the wall,while she knows and recognizes them all too well. Wallace Wooley is played by excellent Frederic March who I know from one of the best movies I have ever seen, classic "The best years of our lives" - here he is a little younger but still wonderful scene stealer, though is hard to see anybody else when Veronica Lake is on the screen, she was such a beauty. Another interesting actor here is Cecil Kellaway as a lovable father of witch Jennifer, he is helping her with his magical tricks and obviously enjoying being on earth again and falling in all kinds of troubles, actually he is one of the most likable characters in the movie. Elizabeth Patterson plays grumpy house help who is against this newcomer in the house (but she has no authority against witchcraft) and Susan Hayward is surprisingly good snooty fiancee who gets one of the worst movie weddings ever. Cutest little comedy that still looks beautiful today.

Even better is "The Thin Man" and this one is actually even older (from 1934) but actually better movie. I didn't know anything about it before I decided to check it out last evening and couldn't stop watching it,laughing with pleasure all the way trough and at certain point I started talking to myself "what a wonderful movie, completely out of the blue!" - the story is very simple crime comedy but its the actors who uplift this into completely different,higher level. William Powell and Myrna Loy are irresistible newly married couple somehow involved into a murder mystery and there are tons of chemistry between them, they are actually truly believable as bitchy partners who love and tease each other. The script gives them sharp wit that looks completely spontaneous and even with all the other actors in the movie, its Powell and Loy who are true stars - and they have this cutest dog Asta who is completely opposite of house-keeping dog,always hiding under the bed when danger arrives. I loved this movie so much that I giggled all the way trough and honestly can say it's one of the great feel-good classics.

Real inspiration behind "Grička vještica"

In the previous post I was writing about rock-musical based on a popular pulp fiction novel and now I would like to focus on the novel itself.

"Grička vještica" (The Witch from Grič) is a curious phenomenon, often described as "housewife's literature" that somehow survives decades and is constantly in print for almost a century now in spite of official opinion that Croatia produced many far more serious writers with more academic credibility. Yes, it is true, we have several serious authors worth mentioning but looking back at that past, one notice that all those writers were men. So one of the main reasons why poor Zagorka was always criticized was actually chauvinism she had to face as the only popular female author of her time. There was also another interesting lady born into aristocracy and her name was Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić but she never worked for living and her talent was confined in the accepted frame of children storytelling (and she suffered terribly because of all this, eventually dying in sanatorium probably suicide). On the other hand Marija Jurić "Zagorka" was not an aristocrat and had to support herself with journalism, unattractive little chubby lady who lived alone in a small apartment looking at the main food market of the city.

The fact that "Grička vještica" was initially printed in newspapers (around 1912) is actually not so surprising - many of famous novels by Charles Dickens and Eugène Sue were sensation because of this kind of presentation and this is how wide audience got to know them first. And just like people on the streets of Paris talked about new details in "Les Mystères de Paris" , Zagreb buzzed about new adventures of brave captain Siniša and beautiful countess Nera who got herself in a trouble with a which hunters. In fact, "Grička vještica" reminds me on another historical novel, a famous french saga "Angélique" by Anne Golon - just like Golon made a point in researching french history, Zagorka knew the history very well and she used real court cases as inspiration for her story. Very belatedly and reluctantly it was noted that she actually did serious research in city archives (and people who wrote about this sounded surprised because her novels were so criticized) going so far to actually use real names in her novel.

Now we are coming to the most interesting part of real inspiration of "Grička vještica" - even if the main characters of Siniša and Nera were fictionalized, many other small players in the story were actually real people whose names were remembered in documents about witch hunt in Zagreb around 1780. Contrary to critics who claimed that Zagorka just made it all up and Zagreb never had witch hunting cases, archives talk about pretty widow Barica Cindek who was main focus of not one but two famous court cases. Lot of people around her ended up in a novel and while she herself was just supporting character (Zagorka obviously thought that countess Nera would make better choice for adventurous female lead) in a real life Cindek was a true heroine. A victim of greed (because her beauty attracted far more customers in the shop) and lust (of certain city official Smole) she ended up imprisoned for witchcraft, released on bail in 1743 and than just three months later she was the one who went to a court pointing at Smole who used his power to later search her body for "devil's mark".Frustrated that he couldn't get her in prison, Smole obviously abused his position again just to see her naked and he didn't count on the idea that the brave little lady will put him in a court,it was really act of bravery because she was unprotected bakery owner going head on against city official. This very unusual real-life story was the basis of what would later became one of the best-known historical novels by Zagorka.

I am not here to really protect Zagorka from every criticism - though she appears to have been very lovable and likable (lonely little lady fighting windmills in her time) her historical novels read like movie scripts - exciting dialogues and not much of anything else. She was to busy with exciting story to pay attention to description of places or explaining motives of her characters (everybody is black-or-white, good or bad) and this makes her more of a theatre or movie script writer than real novelist who knows how to build atmosphere around the story.It is exactly this quality that always made her very appealing to "housewives" audience or teenagers who always adored her books but looking from a distance now, though I still have soft spot for her novels (I read them all in childhood) I must admit that today I clearly understand what were her weak points. However, Zagorka is important for creating audience who started love for reading trough her books. She is our national treasure and I remember affectionately lighting a candle on her grave during annual visits to cemetery on All Soul's Day.

Grička vještica rock-opera (1979)

After great success of the first croatian rock-musical "Gubec-beg" (so called "rock-opera") the same authors Karlo Metikoš (music), Ivica Krajač (lyrics) and Miljenko Prohaska (orchestration) decided to continue in similar style and bring another famous novel to a musical stage. Where classic historical novel by August Šenoa was the inspiration for the "Gubec beg" this time authors turned their attention to story about witch hunt in Zagreb during Austrian-Hungarian Empire. And this is where biggest problem lies.

First woman journalist in Croatia, Marija Jurić "Zagorka" wrote her "Grička vještica" (The Witch from Grič) as a novel published chapter by chapter in weekly newspapers. It was a huge hit and perhaps best-known croatian pulp fiction book, but its success also forced Zagorka to continue her soap opera forever, eventually finishing with seven books that are clearly hard to edit for a theatre stage. Surely, literary critics always considered this novel a low-entertainment that could never even compete with works by other academic authors but this never prevented audience to buy "Grička vještica" to this day,its still in print. Back to musical: I honestly don't understand how on earth these guys ever expected to have seven-books-saga presented as two-hour piece,because it has hundreds of characters and cutting it at the corners makes a story just confusing. Ivica Krajač had idea to use different dialects for ordinary crowd and aristocrats to make point about different classes - it sounds good on the paper, not so great on the stage. Add priests singing in latin and it's all a mess. In order to squeeze story somehow, composer Karlo Metikoš had short two-minutes songs for everybody,making this musical one long procession of too many characters - I read the books and still felt confused while watching live performance.

Audience was very enthusiastic because of success of "Gubec beg" and even this musical was popular,although not as half as previous one. The cast was largely kept the same,with booming baritone Branko Blaće now playing Captain Siniša who fights the law,crowd and superstition to protect strong-headed Countess Nera (Radojka Šverko) from the burning stake. Since the main female role in "Gubec beg" (Josipa Lisac) was at this time invited by "Atlantic Records" in US, the role of love potion selling witch went to another strong rock vocalist Zdenka Kovačićek who is actually the most interesting singer here,but she has only two short moments. The rest of the cast comes from "Komedija" theatre and they are fine,though hardly anybody got enough space to shine.

I had this double LP as a child and loved it enough to actually memorize the lyrics but from a distance of some 30+ years I can tell that authors perhaps took the wrong story for their second musical because neither music nor lyrics make coherent result. It sounds as patchwork of ideas, no doubt because lyric writer was a continent away from composer who lived in US with his girlfriend and only occasionally they would get together to work on this. Sadly,they never wrote another stage musical.

As nature made him

"As nature made him" was a deeply disturbing and important book about the way doctors and hospitals can destroy people's lives with the best of the intentions.

Author John Colapinto is clearly against accepted opinion that babies with genital defects have to be operated and sometimes operations are so drastic that kids get a sex change - he points that rarely if ever, this children grown into happy individuals for a simple reason that genes and hormones are much stronger than any clothes parents might dress a kid into.To illustrate this point he turns to the most celebrated baby sex change case of David Reimer who was born as a twin but something went terribly wrong during circumcising and doctors basically burned off his little penis,leaving parents wondering what to do. They contacted celebrated surgeon who advised them the best thing would be to change sex of the baby and raise him as a girl.It was excellent for a surgeon who built his career out of this case and became world-known but parents and the child had really hard time with this,because it didn't work out so easily as expected. Poor little boy suffered terribly during childhood because he never behaved like a girl should have and was cruelly teased in any school he went to. During puberty he was forced to take female hormons that would start a grow of breasts but he always felt deeply unhappy until parents finally told him about unlucky incident and than he realized nothing is wrong with him, "I am not crazy after all" he said to himself and refused to wear girl's clothes from than on.

Unfortunately the damage has already been done and change of clothes did not erase the years of sadness and confusion in David who even got married and later went on TV with his experience. All this time hospitals and medical teams were still doing operations on little babies (surely with best intentions) pointing how successfully David Reimer lived where in fact this operation was a complete disaster not only for him but also for his parents (father became an alcoholic and mother ended up in sanatorium). When author of this book faced surgeons and asked them to show one happy child who actually lived as a satisfied later,they always gave vague answers about patients who wanted to keep their privacy. This goes as even now an official group of activists from San Francisco (ISNA) protests and writes about this problem, but they rarely get acknowledged in the media and big hospitals are ignoring them.

Sadly,both David Reimer and his twin brother committed suicide later. I am really saddened to hear about this (I found it on internet,it happened after the book was already published) and I am sure that it could have been different if they had friends who could help them and support them. I can't even imagine how the parents must feel now.

Tom Jones in concert

When I was growing up in what was than Yugoslavia, we didn't have many famous stars visiting our concert halls. Yes,I've heard about Louis Armstrong or Ella or Oscar Peterson coming around but these legendary concerts were part of their East European tours and more accident than a rule - for the most of the times really big names were not interested in going behind "iron curtain" I guess, we would watch them on TV and read about them in the magazines, accepting that musicians who were coming were now at the twilight of their careers. For the last 20 or so years it started to change slowly and now suddenly it became almost normal that big stars casually visit our little corner of the world when they tour Europe - from the top of my head I recall David Bowie, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Elton John, George Michael, Natalie Cole and many more. This week we had Lenny Kravitz, Tom Jones and Sade playing back to back next to each other.

Now,I'm not a teenager anymore and no matter how much I enjoy music, it's not easy to get me out of the house. Not exactly sure why is it so,but when I'm not traveling it really comforts me to stay in the house and just rest - maybe because I'm traveling all the time,I appreciate and enjoy quiet evening at home with no work and obligations. But Tom Jones intrigued me and I kept looking at his posters, thinking it must be now or never because he's getting older and maybe I won't have next chance. Actually he was the only contender from the start,since I wouldn't bother with other two stars anyway - Kravitz sounded interesting at the start of his career but soon turned into empty posturing and Sade might sell millions of records but sound too sleepy and mellow for my taste. Jones is something else,old lion with decades of success behind him and a great repertoire of evergreen hits + new contemporary material,no competition here whatsoever.

Since my friends were equally enthusiastic, we all went in "Arena" just to find ourselves surrounded with mostly middle-aged audience and we had fun noticing we were actually "young" here. For some reason concert started one hour later and we didn't like this, because nobody else played at the start so we just waited and waited and I said what is this,they really had enough time to adjust all the buttons and lights,it is not fair towards the people who came in the cold Monday evening to be in time and now are all waiting. So when Tom Jones finally arrived on the stage I didn't even welcome him with applause because I was a bit put off with this nonchalant behavior. Very soon I relaxed because after all this is Tom Jones on the stage playing live and he did sound much better than I expected - he is much older now and visibly don't move around the stage much,just occasionally walking a little but the voice is still there, great roar with that instantly recognizable sound.

As the atmosphere slowly became more and more heated, I became aware of the audience - don't remember when was the last time that I saw such honestly happy audience,it was like Christmas and New Year at the same time - at certain point I wasn't sure am I enjoying Tom Jones at the stage or crazy audience more. There was almost nothing from his old "sex God" behavior left now because he is elderly grandfather and main focus was on music,but women were hysterical and I mean really hysterical. Screaming, dancing, clapping hands, heads shaking like it's heavy metal concert, my God what a happiness - and not only women, men were equally excited, there was one young guy behind us who was so impressed with Tom Jones roaring trough the dark blues "Burning Hell" that he yelled "that's it old man!" with admiration. Towards the end it really became a celebration, nobody was seated anymore and 5 000 people were in a palm of Jones hand. As for me, I was intrigued what exactly are we going to hear,since Tom Jones had decades worth of repertoire - predictably he had to satisfy the audience with his old classics but each time he put a different twist on them so they did not sound exactly like a copy of recordings but fresh. "The Green,green grass of home" became less country and more new age ballad with some impressive harmonizing with backing musicians, while "Delilah" started like acoustic flamenco and turned into really spanish fiesta, that was very good and impressive.He covered almost everything - from his very first recording "Chills and fever" to "I'll never fall in love again" to "What's new pussycat" and "Thunderball" to his recent gospel recordings like "Didn't it rain" and naturally "Sexbomb" and "Kiss" got everybody dancing and screaming. Myself I couldn't sit anymore when he started "It's not unusual" because it's such a feel good song that I found myself joining already crazed audience. Women in front of me really lost their minds and were bawling & screaming like possessed teenagers. If the entertainment means to make people forget about their depressive little lives for two hours, Tom Jones is a great entertainer.

The Gargoyle

I heard about "The Gargoyle" before but never got around to read it until now,expecting some silly love story that probably appealed to masses.

Well,I read it now in two days and it actually turned out to be quite interesting, actually much better than I thought. Behind the obviously fascinating story it also points at a question between how we look and what we are inside. Are we what we are showing to others or is it inside what matters?

The main character here was attractive man blessed with good looks who have made a life out of movies - not just any movies,but he really explored his looks in porn movies and lived surrounded with drugs,drinks and promiscuity until the horrible car accident that left him barely alive in a hospital where he now lies,his skin completely burned and not only he would never look the same,it would be a miracle if he actually ever walks. Even though medical teams makes every effort to help him, he is grumpy and unfriendly until a strange woman started visiting him and telling him stories about their previous lives centuries ago. She is obviously escaped from a psychiatric ward and not the sanest person around but she is not dangerous either and doctors soon allow her visits because burned man is happy to have somebody to visit him. Her stories are fascinating because she somehow knows medieval life very well into smallest details and like Scheherazade (the character who narrates the Arabian Nights) she keeps him living with her storytelling. Later they became even closer because she is the only one who wants to take him after the hospital and slowly he noticed how attached he became to her,now at this point of his life when he is completely disfigured and burned beyond recognition. Earlier in life when he was irresistible porn star he never knew love and now when he looks like a freak and have no penis anymore, love has found him. There is a very interesting twist at the end and a novel simply keeps you reading because reader is never completely sure is this woman just crazy or was she really telling the truth. Surprisingly good read.

Erich Von Däniken re-visited

I have earlier mentioned that on "Interliber" book fair I bought two books from Erich Von Däniken and now I read them both, curious will I still like them the way I did back in the day.

Well,not exactly."Return to the stars" was published some 42 years ago and it shows - not in the ideas,which are still intriguing but because there were so many authors later following his path that now this important book sounds a bit old-fashioned. For example Graham Hancock covers very much the same territory but he is far more exciting writer and there is a whole new age/ conspiracy publishing industry now with some really interesting titles, if one looks in the bookshops there are shelves and shelves with the books that cover what Däniken said first. Or certainly not first,but he was the one who really got attention.

"Were the Gods the astronauts?" turned out to be collection of essays where different scientists discuss Däniken's theories. I was not aware of this but read it nevertheless. First of all, it is clear from the title that no matter what official legal science thought of him,they admired huge commercial success of his books so they gave this collection equally eye-catching title, basically following Däniken's way and certainly trying to sell the book with his gimmick. Predictably most of these scientists held the opinion that he don't know what he is talking about because he is just a curious and passionate amateur while "they" are educated scientists. Only occasional doctor of this or that would admit that there are no proves against Däniken's theories but still the impression is of a stiff,insulted community shocked that amateur would dare to contradict the official position held by well oiled and financed organizations. What really annoys me here is my gut feeling that world moves because of passionate amateurs going against official knowledge. No matter what official position on Erich Von Däniken is, he was the one who started the whole UFO snowball in publishing world and decades later other authors are following what he started.

Taken TV Serial (second opinion)

Not so long ago I wrote that I started watching TV serial "Taken" produced by Spielberg.

It was really good from the start and I truly enjoyed it, though can't understand why is this called "mini series" since every episode lasted forever and even I couldn't go trough more than 2 per evening - maybe because today we have TV serials going on in seasons,so only ten episodes is not worth counting as a serious contender with other titles that go for years. However, I must say now that after first five episodes (that I really liked) everything went downhill for me, because writers and producers decided to place the main focus on present time where the center of everybody's attention become a little girl. So far we had government's secret agents, policemen, soldiers, journalists and the whole spectrum of interesting characters but now suddenly nobody is really important except a child and I'm not ten years old anymore so I don't connect with children's characters,I found it all very tedious,boring beyond words and unfortunately it came to the point that I had to stop watching it simply became annoying. Last two episodes were so boring,predictable and unwatchable that it almost destroyed everything I liked at the start.

The little girl with all her constant sobbing and supposedly alien powers was treated in a script like a new Messiah and it was all too sugary and cheesy for me. Her parents were even worse, saddled with truly horrendous lines and mostly were just hysterical - where earlier in episodes characters were believable and engaging,now this two were completely one-dimensional caricatures constantly screaming, yelling and basically going on my nerves. Mother:" I want my daughter!" Father:" What the hell is going on?" (And it goes like this from one episode to another,than another) I really wanted these two to be kidnapped by aliens and thrown out of the space ship into deep,big and dark universe forever. Only two actors still continued to interest me and those were Matt Frewer and Heather Donahue playing bad couple who are constantly trying to get this little girl locked up in some secret laboratory and oh how I wished they succeeded,lobotomized her and lived happily ever after. Not only that I really liked eccentric Frewer but was surprised to find out that strikingly attractive and interesting Donahue (who had something like Medusa-eyes about her, but like Bette Davis, once you seen her it's impossible to forget her) was actually playing in "Blair Witch Project" and for this role she was elegant & pretty that I didn't even recognize her!

Can someone please explain to me what is this about US TV (and movie) production where Spielberg pushes kids in the centre and surrounds them with cheesy script, lots of crying, sniffling, bawling and of course symphonic music all over the place just to drill the point into audience's heads? Is this really what people like to watch or is this the way people behave in USA? I don't expect entertainment to be "realistic" but please, this ending was so sugary that it really spoiled the whole serial for me.

The Gospel According To Ike & Tina (1973)

The biggest mystery: why on earth would world famous soul rock act record a gospel album that has nothing to do with their musical style?

Is it because of Aretha's smash hit with "Amazing Grace" album? Or did they wanted, like Dionne Warwick, Ruth Brown and so many other artists to "go back to the roots"? I doubt it,though Ike was a son of Baptist minister and Tina was raised healthy doses of Pentecostal meetings - they decidedly followed a path towards a white rock audience and were closer to Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Woman" and Delta Blues than traditional gospel music by Thomas A. Dorsey. Than again, what do we know - Thomas A. Dorsey was a blues pianist & composer who worked with Ma Rainey and was making a career out of it until he got a calling. Ike's good pal Little Richard was also rock artist who suddenly turned to preaching. Soul legend Al Green was just around the corner from leaving commercial music and turning to gospel.

In my opinion, the explanation was different - when he finally achieved commercial success, Ike Turner got himself "Bolic" recording studio and tinkered forever with covers, as they obviously worked. "Proud Mary" was a smash,but also pointed at dead end street - how long can one cover white hits and still stay relevant? He kept his wife locked up in marathon sessions, where she would sing everything from "Tweedle Dee" to "Ya Ya" to " "Stagger Lee" - all those covers by LaVern Baker, Sam Cooke and everybody under the sun. Black artists, white artists, anybody. Somewhere along the way perhaps a gospel song would get Turnerized treatment and it sounded good to somebody at recording company (United Artists) so this is where idea was born. The full page ad was placed at "Bilboard" saying "Have you been to church lately?" signaling the royal couple of black rock went back to the roots.

When you look at final results, though, it makes no difference is it gospel or chinese folk music - Ike was heavily into synthesizers (remember the one in "Nutbush City Limits?") and it doesn't really matter where the original material comes from, at the end the whole album sounds like out-takes from "Nutbush City Limits" or any of the albums recorded at "Bolic" at that time. The only new and interesting thing is that Ike himself takes singing duties on three (!) numbers as completely ignoring the fact that all that previous success was due to his talented wife - he goes so far that even places himself at the opening song "Father alone" and later wobbles trough "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and "Take My Hand Precious Lord" because nobody dared to contradict him. As for Tina, she probably did what Ike told her to do and nobody can tell does she enjoy this or is she simply professional - with farting synthesizers behind her and Ikettes providing hand clapping and some spirited backing vocals, she sounds happy on upbeat numbers like "Glory Glory" but than meanders elsewhere. Perhaps it would have made a good single instead of spreading the idea on a whole LP.

Curiosity and anomaly in their discography, it's not really a gospel music but soul rock variation on traditional melodies. A decade later, in a completely new world, Tina would get a chance to sing gospel in "Color Purple" movie as Shug Avery character returns to her father's church and sing rousing gospel number "Maybe God Is Trying To Tell You Somethin'" - it's still one of those great what-if theories and possibilities where she could have showed two opposite sides of her character (sexy blues singer, equally energetic in devils and religious music, two sides of the coin, something that even Bessie Smith did,although curiously Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington strictly refused on religious basis) but she declined with some vague explanations that nobody questioned or understand at the time. The role,she claimed, was "too similar" to all the bad women Ike used to bring home - this is hard to understand since Shug Avery was a complex character with a heart of gold,who helps Whoopie Goldberg to raise her head. Is it lesbian undertones of the script or all-black cast that did not appeal to Tina who finally reached crossover plateau, who knows - until this day it keeps me wondering what fire and understanding she could have brought to a role. But she refused Spielberg and Hollywood never invited her back.

My thanks to a blogger here who actually inspired me to write this essay and who unknowingly also helped me to understand how to create Hyperlink. It's excellent and interesting blog with writing of the quality I can only dream of.It makes me feel at the same time inspired and embarrassed because I could never write as good as he does - but I can still do my best,considering english is not my first language and I am completely self-taught trough the music,movies and books no less.

Fontella Bass and Tina Turner (1963)

Spellbinding and utterly hypnotizing blues ballad from some dusty corner of soul history, this little single is unpolished,raw and earthy sound of black ghetto. Just a guitar and few instruments in the background,piano plinking and girl (in this case great Fontella Bass) pouring her heart out to a song that actually belong more to already out-of-fashion doo wop style of previous decade. Think Lula Reed, Esther Phillips or any of classic rhythm n' blues songbirds. It is a dark, smokey sound of after-hours hang outs, with strange characters and only a tired waiter still around. Yes,it has Ike Turner written all over it and Tina joins harmonizing in refrain, her recognizable deep, soulful voice matching main vocalist note by note. Side B is another doo wop ballad "This Would Make Me Happy" that actually has Ikettes around for a background vocals. Delicious glimpse into the past. Old jukebox. Almost never anthologized on CDs although it definitely should have been. I love this so much that I could listen this all the time.

"Gypsy" Original Cast Album (1959)

One of the best musicals that ever came of Broadway, "Gypsy" was surprising and refreshing step away from sugary musical confectionery and usual comedy stuff - it works as pure entertainment but it also has dark undertones about children abuse, emotional blackmail and the main character is a monster mother. And than there is brilliant way with Stephen Sondheim lyrics and how they match Jule Styne music - it's almost spooky how character of Baby June actually preceded Baby Jane in 1962. movie with Bette Davis.

Interestingly enough,Irving Berlin (who had great success with Merman playing in his musicals) refused the play, because "Gypsy" was too dark and disturbing for him. Even better - Sondheim and Styne did brilliant work together, though Sondheim was not exactly thrilled to again play the second fiddle to a composer (he wrote lyrics for "West Side Story" and hardly anybody noticed him as all the praise went to Leonard Bernstein). Years later, Sondheim complained that Merman was simply learning her lines like a "talking dog" and never understood character she was playing, but never mind - it was huge success in the theatre and played forever (from 1959 to 1961) to a audience of thousands. Again, music found its way to standard repertoire outside of Broadway though I must admit what really hits home for me is the comedy trio of old strippers (“You Gotta Get a Gimmick”) that always cracks me up,no matter how many times I heard it before.

This is not just the best musical work of Ethel Merman's career but also the one perfectly suite for her loud,brassy and often over-bearing singing. Somehow her pushy way with music matches the character of aggressive and domineering stage mother, so it's really combination made in musical Heaven. It's hard to take anybody else seriously in this role.

Again, Hollywood chose another actress for a movie version and Merman was understandably heartbroken though it's difficult to imagine her showing it - she probably cursed and went on performing sold-out shows, to show "them" what they are missed.