Playing Favorites 8/6/22

 

I seem to have fallen into the habit of posting Playing Favorites on Saturday the tagging it a Friday Favorite. At first it was write a draft on Friday, then revise and post it on Saturday. Well, this post is written, revised and posted on Saturday, so I suppose I can’t tag it as a Friday Favorite. For the sake of honesty, I’ve dispensed with the Friday tag in favor of calling it simply Playing Favorites. This is a four-layer favorite, a beautiful song, written and performed by my favorite pianist for one of my favorite movies, which happens to have the most beautiful opening titles of any film I can remember. Add performances by Katharine Hepburn by Henry Fonda and you have a four-layer favorite with frosting. If you have not seen On Golden Pond you owe it to yourself to track it down. Yes, its old (1981) and a little dated, but if you are reading Bud’s blog, you are used to that. Henry Fonda is the perfect curmudgeon and Katherine Hepburn the ever-optimistic wife taking care of him as he slows down. The cinematography is, including the opening title, is done by Billy Williams.

Friday Favorites 9/21/2012

One night last week, my movie-to-blog-by was The Firm.  The Tom Cruise led production of John Grisham’s best selling novel is nowhere near my list of favorite films but it meets my criterion for blogging background: good enough that it doesn’t annoy me and not so good it distracts me completely.  Part way through, I noticed a familiar melody in the mostly piano soundtrack which until that point had behaved like any good soundtrack, supporting the action without overwhelming it.  With a little effort, I remembered that the particular melody was The Memphis Stomp and that The Firm’s soundtrack was written by Dave Grusin.  Who, you say?  Dave Grusin.   You may not have heard his name but I can almost guarantee you’ve heard his music.