2006-02-25 - 10:20 p.m. So, the Neil Young movie. Gestalty background: I love Jonathan Demme's music films, not just the obvious one, but my beloved Storefront Hitchcock (I was in the audience for that'un!). And I respect and admire Neil Young. And I saw the first Neil Young concert film with my older brother when I was but a young punk, so I've already got a filmic connection to the man. And I was having a strange day, plunked down in the middle of a strange week--lots of death, major illnesses, break-ups, engagements, big life changes, all in other people's lives but swirling around me like snowsquall. And I'm soon to face a major birthday, which is causing me to think a lot about things like, "How do I want to be in this world in the next part of my life?" So seeing ol' Neil, with his entire backing band, all looking frail and elderly and yet still radiating good will, human endurance, and deep wrinkled beauty, just made me feel like part of the family of man, and witness to the power of music to communicate and heal. Listening to Neil Young as a 96-year-old post-brain-aneurysm patient singing "Heart of Gold" just makes so much more emotional sense to me than watching Mick Jagger prance about in football pants. Because I totally buy that he's looking for a heart of gold, that he's actually found it, that he's already realized that he found it, and now he's singing about the folly of continuing the search. It helps, also, that I saw it with 3 people I adore, whose experience of the film may not have been exactly the same as mine, but probably no less dramatic. Um, and a bunch of other book and music and movie stuff, but the coffee shop I'm a-typin' in is about to close! thoughts? (4 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact