I’ve just lost ten years of my life in a computer crash, and it’s got me down. I’ve tried being grown-up and rational about it, reminding myself that it’s not the end of the world: I could have cancer, or someone I love could have died, and anyway it’s my own stupid fault for not backing things up. But I just end up feeling worse, moping away the days in grief, guilt, and frustration.
Stephen King, of all people, reminded me what I need. In a recent Entertainment Weekly column (Aug 10, 2007, available at ew.com), he describes a YouTube video in which an ordinary middle-aged guy, hearing a few bars of a favorite old song, breaks into a solitary dance in the aisle of Best Buy. This is what the arts are for, King says, “to cause a sudden burst of happy emotion, a sudden rush to the head, the feet, and what may be the truest home of joy: a butt that just has to shake its happy self.”
King’s list of his personal “joy buzzers” inspired me to come up with my own favorites, which range from pop art to classics. I figure it’s as good a way as any to introduce myself to anyone who might happen upon this site. Herewith, in no particular order:
· The twitch of Hugh Grant’s hip to the beat of “Jump” by the Pointer Sisters in “Love, Actually.” This one’s a triple whammy: I get to watch Grant’s Prime Minister have his own buzz of joy; I get to watch Grant unwind; and I get to twitch to a song that’s one of my own buzzers.
· The end of “Grand Canyon,” where the characters, having bridged a few chasms of their own, stand silently gazing out at the canyon. If I made movies, this would be the one I would make, about fear and hope and remembering what’s important. (For its literary equivalent, see Ian McEwan’s Saturday.)
· The entire U2 “Joshua Tree” album. And, less moving but more energizing, singing the OOH-ooh’s in “Elevation” with Bono.
· Hearing “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” especially at a concert where my seat was right over the stage and Simon and Gar, now geezers but no less magical, sang literally at my feet and I still got choked up even though I’ve heard it at least a million times.
· The stunning first paragraph of Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides, which I read on a plane. Several pages later, I closed my eyes and knew that if the plane crashed, I would die in a moment of pure bliss.
· The Amen of the Gloria in Mozart’s “Coronation Mass.”
· Kenneth Branagh giving the St. Crispin’s day speech in “Henry V.” The words (“we few, we happy few, we band of brothers”), the voice, the music, the camera work: absolute chills no matter how many times I replay it.
· Emma Thompson’s one-minute meltdown in “Love, Actually” when she thinks her husband has been unfaithful—OK, definitely amazing but maybe not exactly a joy buzzer, so how about Laura Linney’s hidden dance of joy when she gets the guy she loves home? and Bill Nighy’s twitchy, over-the-hill rocker exhibiting his entire scrawny body on prime time? and the two porn star stand-ins sharing an innocent kiss as the snow falls on Christmas Eve? I guess I’m going to have to conclude that the entire movie is a gigantic joy buzzer.
· Singing along with Neil Diamond, in spite of his often-laughable lyrics, or with Barbra Streisand or the sound track to “Les Miserables.”
· Any and every word spoken by Andre Braugher in “Homicide,” though the joy of witnessing godlike acting is tempered by the always-depressing truths being uttered through gritted teeth.
· “Love Changes Everything,” one of those ever-crescendoing Broadway songs full of lines like “Now I tremble at your name.” Sigh.
· The last scene of “You’ve Got Mail,” when Tom Hanks comes into the park, and their eyes meet, and Meg Ryan says “I really wanted it to be you.”
· And when, in “Sleepless in Seattle,” Tom Hanks’s sister has a meltdown recounting the plot of “An Affair to Remember,” and the guys respond with a mocking rendition of the end of “The Dirty Dozen,” and it could become a nasty Mars-and-Venus moment, but instead everybody laughs, and it’s just so funny, and so real.
· “Lux Aeterna” by Lauridsen. Real art, more of a soother than a joy buzzer. As beautiful and comforting as a hot bath, it’s what I reach for when I can’t sleep.
· Making a list of my favorite things, and not being depressed any more.
Note: If you want some fun, post your own list as a comment. And please add your approximate age or generation with your list.
7 comments:
wowee, what a list. It's almost inspiring me to make one of my own, HOWEVER, I've just spent 2 hours putting photos from iPhoto onto a disc. TWO hours because I forgot to burn the disc the first time around...aaaagh...and instead of making a list, I'm goint to start reading, oh joy, the final Harry Potter book, Thanks Jan!
Jan! I love your list! Great post. Here's my list of great art moments.
Love, Actually. I’m with you, Jan. The entire movie is a happy-fest. Uh, Colin Firth would be my main honey from this movie. Sorry, Hugh!
The Rising, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, March 6, 2003, Richmond Coliseum, The Rising Tour. Thank you, Lord, for this man and the band and for tomorrow being a new day and yes, for catfish dancing on the line, too.
“Maybe Very Happy” from Refusing Heaven Poems by Jack Gilbert. This poem always reminds me how lucky I am to be married to the greatest guy on Earth. The husband, after his wife’s death discovers through a friend that the wife’s only complaint of him was that perhaps, maybe, oh yes, all right he did make a noise when drinking his tea “if it was very hot.” That’s love, eh?
Jesus Was an Only Son, Bruce Springsteen, 10/24/2005, Richmond Coliseum, Devils & Dust Tour. I couldn’t stop crying, joyful crying. This entire show was like good church.
Prada. I was in Barney’s, just visitin’, the first and only time I saw a brown, Prada gown – okay, they probably called it Turkish espresso or something, not brown. Anyway, it was so freaking coco silky I wanted to lick it. I maintained; I did not lick the dress.
John Adams by David McCullough. The knowledge that Adams and Ben Franklin shared not only the very last room at an inn, but the very last bed there, too, and then spent their hours between wake and sleep arguing about whether or not the window should stay raised makes me really, really, deliriously giddy.
Louisiana Bayou, Dave Matthews Band, 8/11/2007, Nissan Pavilion, Stand Up Tour. My, my, my that Dave can shake his body; Boyd, too, yes indeedy. Hoo-whee, I couldn’t stop moving, joyful moving!
Schubert’s Ave Maria. Forget Luther Vandross; forget even Marvin Gaye. This is music to make love to. Trust me. That’s all I’m saying about this one.
Troy starring Brad Pitt. Fast forward to the buns. Rewind. Watch again. Repeat as needed. Fast forward to angry Brad delivering the macho I’m-going-to-kill-you-Hector and-enjoy-it-speech: “Hectah! Snort, snort! Hectah! Snort, snort! Hectah!” So meaty, indeed.
To Love Somebody Ray LaMontagne, 12/18/2006, Boston Orpheum, Til the Sun Turns Black Tour (then running into him the next morning outside the hotel on Tremont!) All right, Ray, it was your night!
The Mission – entire movie. What else to say? Must watch this every year to feel new again and forgiven. Plus, that Aidan Quinn has such nice eyes.
The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.“You got a lot of fat squirrels going to waste here, the old man said, bending down to Laurel, and she was unprepared for it when he kissed her goodbye.” This line tickles me and almost makes me hungry.
Sedona. (ok, this is a place, but it's very artsy and I felt like I had one BIG, AMAZING moment that stretched across the whole time I was there.)
Starry Night and The Olive Trees hanging together on whatever floor, there, at MoMA. I could have sat right there all night on my free Friday night pass. Thanks, Target.
What a great way to battle the creeping funk. I am going to pluck a few from my mind. Don't know if I'll reach ten but here goes:
Stevie Wonder singing "Blowin' in the Wind" at the Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert.
Dylan himself doing "Lay Lady Lay" or "Along the Watchtower" or......
The Band with the Staples Singers doing "The Weight"
Bilbo, Frodo, Lyra, Thomas Covenant and other fantasy heroes at the moment they really get it.
Dvorak's New World Symphony in a park in Budapest with wife, son and brother.
"I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. I have no idea why.
To gigi I say au contraire. Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On"
How can a war speech bring joy? Henry V only gets topped by George C. Scott as Patton remembering ancient battles "I love it......."
"The Road Not Taken" or "Stopping By Woods..." Anytime, anywhere.
That's ten. I can't wait to do ten more. Thanks.
Jan, you have perhaps inspired me to start blogging again, even if nobody reads it. And to start with a list of my own joy buzzers. What a great name! I must ad to your list of wonderful, heart-warming, oh-so-real "Love Actually" moments these two: When Liam Neeson says to his step-son he's relieved he's not upset by something serious, by something big, by something "worse" than being in love at age 11 and the boy replies: "Worse than the total agony of being in love?" And, the entire scene when the gorgeous man silently tells his best friend's wife he loves her on Christmas Eve, and then walks away, and lets it go. *sigh*
If only I had time to post a list but instead I must now spend all night online looking up all these
wonderful, aforementioned gems to add to my own collection! What a great idea - thanks Stephen and Mom!
A few that quickly come to mind:
-listening to anything by Melissa Etheridge, preferably while driving fast with the windows down.
-since the insanely wonderful Love Actually has already been deified, I go to scenes from Lost in Translation: for belly laughs, Bill Murray on the treadmill in the spectacular Tokyo ParkHyatt, for sweetness, his karaoke version of More than This; for utterly satisfying endings, when he whispers something (what?? doesn't really matter . . .) into Scarlett's ear on the street and holds her. Ahhhhhh.
-Bruce singing Blinded by the Light or 4th of July, Asbury Park
-the moive Dirty Dancing. Is it art? No. Does it bring me joy? Yes.
-the All Souls Unitarian Church Choir siging Siyahamba, a South Afrcan freedom song "We are marching in the light of God." Awesome. I can never get past the third word without my throat closing up but it a song of hope and triumpth, not sadness.
-Oh, ok, no one mentioned the entire opening and closing montage to Love, Actually where people of every age, race, size, and ethnicity are embracing at Heathrow. Beautiful. Joy, joy, buzz, buzz.
Meg Christian, Cris Williamson, Holly Near and Lucy Blue Tremblay's old CD's that I have been singing to recently - knowing there are a few voices in my range and letting me think I can sing...Connecting with that one obnoxious, somewhat handicapped 5 yr. old boy at Montessori that prompted me to recognize what God was to me - a ribbon of energy between people... Oh, are these supposed to be great art moments or just great joy moments? Here's an art moment - seeing Judy Chicago's needlework exhibit on Being a Mother, stitched by humdreds of women she commissioned,in Miami. Apparently I will have to enter my moments of joy little by little as they come to me. More to come...
This is a list in progress:
- Friday's and Wednesday's Washington Post
- period pieces of all accents
- bedazzled musicals with plenty of jazz hands
- The "I let you down, but you let me down too" scene from Dirty Dancing
- Cracklin' Rosie (which I was always embarrassed to admit)
- A greasy baseball park hot dog with a warm, slightly skuzzy, beer
- The Cloisters on a sunny day
- "The Skater" by Gilbert Stuart
- a good pun
- any Hepburn movie
- foreign cities
- green leaves against a deep blue sky
Hmm, I know I am missing Lorrie Moore’s short stories, “Suicide Note,” and all things street fair, but I want to take a nap. My favorite joy buzz of all.
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