I’ve been beginning to cringe anytime I get a number between 450 and 600 on this challenge because it means it’s one of the almanac rhymes that says something abstract about the weather and I would feel guilty about skipping it and reaching for another number. But today’s rhyme, “Happy is the Bride that the Sun shines on” had just enough to work with.
Well for this rhyme, “It’s Once I Courted As Pretty a Lass”, I was afraid I was dealing with one of the cliche’s of this collection, a gentleman gone a wooing… that is until I got to the last verse and found it very entertaining. I think this is one of the few times I find Values Dissonance working in out favor. The narrator clearly thinks this is a story about a faithless woman, where as I read it as someone dealing with a pest. All the way through drawing this I kept thinking “You go, Girl!”
The only problem I had with this was that I wasn’t sure if a Hog Tub was the same as a pig trough in the context of the poem… I decided not to worry about it.
Today’s rhyme, “A Robin and a Robin’s Son” was one I just couldn’t resist. The possibilities just started popping up as soon as I read the first line. The only challenge was making sure the tiny little robins were visible in the scene I envisioned.
I decided to go with contemporary rather than the usual poorly (not at all) researched pseudo Georgian aesthetic because it reminded me of several of the bakeries at the assorted farmer’s markets in Seattle specifically the Little Prague Bakery that specialize in wonderfully enticing pastries.
Today’s Rhyme ” The Old Man in the Velvet Coat” for me hits the land of Values Dissonance again. The poem doesn’t say anything about whether the “maid” (don’t know if that means girl or servant in the context, I went with the servant) wanted it or not… In fact it seems that the only thing that the rhyme disapproves of is the fact that the old man stiffed her with a coin she couldn’t spend… In other versions of this rhyme there’s more verses suggesting that the velvet coat was a way of making a foolish person look more important.
Well this starts the home stretch to the end of this thing, three quarters through. Feeling pumped.
The official working theme on this one was “Crime Comedies” but in the long run I’m not completely sure of how accurate that ended up… you all be the judge.
The first film my list Buffet froid (Cold Cuts) by Bertrand Blier features Gérard Depardieu as Alphonse Tram, an insomniac who spends his nights taking long walks. One night he finds a man he had talked to hours before in a subway dying with Alphonse’s knife. When he confesses to his only neighbor a police the man tells him to stop bothering him. Later his wife is murdered and this is treated equally nonchalantly
Things get really weird when the killier comes to his apartment to confess. Soon after that the police detective shows up only for the two to shake hands and share a glass of wine as if it was a normal get together. After that there is no turning back.
This movie is pure absurdity that doesn’t even pretend to make sense. Based on how Alphonse kept saying he didn’t sleep because of his nightmares I kept expecting him to wake up. Still, this has nice physical humor with a wonderfully cynical point of view.
My next film on my list Stand Up Guys is the story of two aging gangsters. Christopher Walken plays Doc a retired gangster who spends his time painting sunsets. Al Pacino plays his best friend, Val who just got out of prison after 28 years. It turns out Doc has been assigned to kill Val by another mobster who wants revenge who was killed in friendly fired during a heist. But Doc can’t bring himself to do it and stalls for time as he gives his friend one last night of fun.
Walked and Pacino have very good chemistry in this thing, but other than that the best thing I can say about this film is meh. It’s technically a comedy but it’s really no funnier than your average action flick. Sure there’s sone funny stuff regarding why you shouldn’t have more than the prescribed dosage of viagra, and a very straight laced bordelllo but otherwise, meh.
This Week’s rhapsody is the Lunar Rhapsody, by Harry Revel from his album Music out of the Moon.
