I'M GONE FIVE DAYS AND THEY SNEAK THIS IN ON ME

It's really amazing how much can happen (and make my head hurt) in just under a week. I actually didn't intend to have a complete sabbatical from all things modern, but our "Happy Days" house at the Cape was a serious throwback to the 50s: virtually no cell service, and not one WiFi connection to steal from as far as my PowerBook could reach. It's like, people go there on vacation or something! So I spent the majority of my time reading "The Bourne Identity", in preparation to rewatch the great film, before launching into "The Bourne Supremacy" so I can go catch the box-office winning adaptation, even though the films depart quite a bit from the novels ... but I'm crazy like that.

So I get back to the (sigh) day job this morning to find that I'd let so much stuff just sort of slide the last couple weeks that I need to spend a bunch of time organizing mysef, so I don't know how much time I'll have to post today. But in catching-up on some of last week's trades and today's stories, I couldn't help but take a moment to reflect on what's causing my Excedrin headache.

For example, please somebody stop Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. They've obviously let a little overrated Oscar win go to their heads because there is no reason in heaven or earth that anyone, let alone the two of them, even with the help of a great writer like Paul Attanasio, should be attempting a remake of East of Eden. I don't care if the book has renewed popularity because of Oprah, the original film is brilliant with a central performance by James Dean that I sincerely doubt could be topped. And Ronnie, no matter how competent a director you may be, you're no Elia Kazan. Stick to Da Vinci; leave Steinbeck, Kazan and Dean alone.

Then there's this (which I'm sure made the rounds of the blogosphere last week): "'Avenue Q' Producers Spin Rights to 'High Fidelity' for Lindsay-Abaire, Kitt, Green Musical." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. First, I have repeatedly stated my allegiance to the brilliant Avenue Q, but I don't take any solace in seeing the producers (as opposed to the creative entities) being behind this. Second, like many people, especially guys my age, out there, I love High Fidelity, both Nick Hornby's novel and Stephen Frears' excellent adaptation. But most importantly, did anyone see the big musical adaptations of Footloose? Or Saturday Night Fever?> They were absolutely awful. What do they have in common with High Fidelity? They're all movies heavily influenced by music; films in which the soundtracks were integral to, and maybe even more important than, the plot. In those other two stage adaptations, the popular songs from the soundtrack were reorchestrated to be sung by the cast members on stage. To say it looked silly was an understatement. Apparently, for High Fidelity, they plan to write original songs and music. But how will that all merge with the soundtrack of the story; with Rob's lists of songs and mix-tape compilations? In the Variety story, composer Tom Kitt says, "The hero's life is a soundtrack, and the big moments are songs." But those songs are ones the audience -- for book and film -- remember, relate to and can attribute to the same kinds of events and circumstances in their own lives. Without them, the story is meaningless. If their orchestrated to be sung live by the actors, it will just be cheesy. I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a disaster, but I'm not optimistic.

Comments

[fairest]

That's some house. did it creak? Did it snap at night? "The Clearing" was great, saw it this weekend.

[Aaron]

Uhm ... just to be clear, neither myself nor any relation or friend owns this Cape House. 12 of us rented it for the week. Yes, I said 12! It was nice, but it totally creaked and snapped! And every morning, everything was damp.

[Marleigh]

Obviously they've managed to completely miss the point of both Nick Hornby's novel and the film. All you need to know is the bit about pop songs—"Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"—to realize that it's about the significance of the songs personally, and on a larger scale. Music geeks bond so closely because we all have these deep, existential bonds with music and songs that encapsulate so much. Ultimately, I think that is what drives all people to listen to music, though on a less rigorous and demanding scale.

Turning that experience into a musical is blasphemous. It takes away the most valuable parts of those songs and moments and turns them into some cheeky, bastardized sunshine-fest, when that has no place amidst the complexities of feeling symbolized by a record collection, and the lifetime it takes to develop a good one.

It's like that scene where Rob refuses to buy the insanely expensive and wonderful record collection for dirt cheap because he just can't betray another geek that way. The producers shouldn't buy the collection—it'll just ruin the enjoyment of it.