I have a week off from school that means I should be blogging daily. Let’s see if I will. I’m going through the nominees for my most exciting albums of 2022 edition of Gord’s Gold. I decided that’s the way to phrase it, the albums that excited me the most. That fits in with my aesthetics. I am less inclined than many to celebrate well crafted standard fare. I want music that takes me new places, make me think new things, or instills me with unbridled joy. I am still having technical issues. Even after all my efforts of repair I am still missing metadata on many albums. Those did not show up on my list of albums released in 2022. If I want the show ready for Thursday night, I am going to have to accept that I might miss albums worthy of inclusion. One thing that makes my job easier is that I’m not choosing a top 10. I’m choosing enough music to fill an hour show. That generally means 14-16 songs. I will talk more than usual which means that 14 is what I expect. I’m sitting at 12.
I’ve been having adventures coming home from school. On Wednesday I found myself on a B train instead of the D, so I got off at Columbus Circle to switch. Every other train that stops there came first. Then when the app told me that the D was next, I hopped aboard. It wasn’t until I saw I was at 168th street, the D doesn’t stop there. I had gotten on an A. There was a 12-minute wait until the next downtown train. I’d then have to wait for an F. I punted and decided to take a LYFT home. It was half the price of Uber.
Yesterday I stopped at the Holiday Market at Union Square on the way home. I wanted to get the Duck Poutine one last time while it was available. From there I usually take the 4 home but I had to stop at the pharmacy for a prescription and that’s near the D train. I took the Q to 34th street to switch to the D. They made an announcement; somebody had pulled the emergency break on a train at 42nd street and the D was running on the 8th avenue line. That meant going back to the Q and taking it to 42nds street, then walking the underground passage from the Times Square Station over to the 8th where I got an A and then switched to a D at Columbus Circle. The D has been having issues of late.
I watched Meet John Doe over the last few nights. I saw that first as a teen home alone on New Year’s Eve. I had never even heard of it. I don’t know what made me watch; maybe it was Gary Cooper who starred in one of my favorite films Beau Geste. That might have been before I became a lover of Frank Capra. I might have already discovered It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Mr. Deeds Comes to Town, perhaps even It Happened One Night. I watch Meet John Doe most years. It makes me cry every time. We call what Capra directed “Capra Corn.” They are very much films of their time, but they are also timeless. When you listen to the dialogue in John Doe it echoes what people are saying today. There is the feeling that something is deeply wrong with the world, that there’s corruption and the threat of fascism. Capra was not a Pollyanna, blind to the problems of the world, but he was an optimist. He believed, and got the audience to believe, that we can do something about it. The John Does of the world can make a difference. Over the strains of Ode to Joy the cynical newsman Connell says, “There you are Mr. Norton, the people, try and lick that,” and my tears start flowing. I just rewatched the very end to get that quote right and I’m typing this through the tears. Like Rick in Casablanca, I’m a rank sentimentalist.
John Doe is the title character and Gary Cooper the headline star, but the protagonist is Barbara Stanwyck’s Ann Mitchell. She is the driver of events and John is caught in the storm created by Ann and the antagonist D.B. Norton portrayed by Edward Arnold. Ann wrote the speeches that made John Doe into a national hero. It is only in the final scenes that he takes the tiller to navigate his way through the storm. In fairness to John Doe and Gary Cooper his decisions in those final scenes are the emotional heart of the film. Still, it’s great that in a film made in 1941 a woman is the least passive character, and she comes to the rescue of the hero, not the other way around. I love when we find hints of attitudes that lay in the future in old works of art.
Now back to work. I have 15 songs and 53 minutes of music lined up. I might have to make some tough choices and swap some songs in. Wish me luck. As this is Christmas weekend listen to my holiday show.
Wise Madness 