This is so cute. A friend of mine sent it to me, but the one she sent had captions at the bottom in Spanish throughout the video about being married and what it entails (how hardship brings you together, how things often don't go as planned, etc).
I never saw the movie UP, but if this clip is an indication of the quality of the movie, it probably is a pretty enjoyable one. I guess I might have to get it from Netflix and watch it. (Funny how that Netflix list never seems to get any smaller.)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Thing About Sting
There are a couple of reasons I like Sting and his music as much as I do. First because of the way his songs have fit into my life and second because many of the verses he writes are dotted literary references.
I first came to know Sting as the lead singer for The Police, as many of us did. As a matter of fact, the first guy I really felt myself in love with, Jeff Kurta, had introduced The Police to me (and also Toto...I'll get to that later). So many of the songs Sting has written comprise the corpus of the soundtrack of my adult life, or so it seems to me. I find it intriguing how music has a way of connecting one to one's past in the split second he/she hears the first few notes of a familiar tune. It does so for me and other people I know say they experience that same sort of time travel.
The first time I had ever gone to Jeff's house he answered the door and I heard music in the background. It was Toto (Rosanna) I think. Later on, when Jeff moved with his mother and his step-father to Swaziland and then to South Africa, their song "Africa" came out on the radio. Could a song have fit more closely with my life at that moment, when the young man I loved lived in Africa and received weekly cards and letters from me?
On one of his visits back home to Montreal he came to Plattsburgh to visit me. At the time, I worked as a cashier at Ames Department Store and a store called Record Town was in the same shopping center. On the day of his visit, I had to work and couldn't get the day off. Since his father had dropped him off and would be back to pick him up later at an agreed meeting point (those too were the times of no cell phones), we hung out at my apartment on Couch Street and then he and I took a taxi to Ames for me to start my shift that afternoon. On my break, he met me outside of Ames and gave me a 45 vinyl record with "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. From that point on my appreciation for their music grew and morphed into a more refined appreciation for Sting's lyrics and his work as a solo artist.
One of the things that appealed to me most about his lyrics was the allusions to and intertextuality of works of literature and/or of literary characters. The set of lyrics that comes to mind most vividly is those of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" in which are included "the Scylla and Charibdes", an allusion to The Odyssey by Homer. Then further on is referenced Mephistopheles from Faust. Wanting to learn the lyrics to the songs to sing along, these references sparked my curiosty. Since I didn't know the works then to what they alluded I could not help wonder what these were, but I immediately was attracted to their inclusion. I remember thinking "How cool to include literature in lyrics."
Here are the lyrics followed by the video of the song. (Like the video...surpisingly this is the first time I've ever seen it. Don't know how THAT happened.) :
You consider me the young apprentice
Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes.
Hypnotized by you if I should linger
Staring at the ring around your finger.
I have only come here seeking knowledge,
Things they would not teach me of in college.
I can see the destiny you sold
turned into a shining band of gold.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
Mephistopheles is not your name,
But I know what you're up to just the same.
I will listen hard to your tuition,
And you will see it come to it's fruition.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
Devil and the deep blue sea behind me
Vanish in the air you'll never find me.
I will turn your face to alabaster,
Then you'll find your servant is your master,
And you'll be wrapped around my finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
You'll be wrapped around my finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.....
Another song written by Sting is "Don't Stand So Close to Me" which, to me, is a case more of intertextuality than allusion (though a case could be made for intertextuality for "Wrapped Around Your Finger" easily enough). Intertextuality is, so not to get bogged down too much with literary terms, is taking a work of art (most often a written work, but other media have been used to produce the same effect) and including it in another work, not just by mentioning it, but by interweaving the first with in the second. Here we find that infamous work by Valdimir Nabokov, Lolita, interwoven in the story that the song lyrics tells. The story line of the song and that of Nabokov's book draw so many parallels that the lines between their distinct forms become blurred. Now you might think that this song is about the book Lolita but because he writes "Just like the old man in / that book by Nabokov" he makes a distinction between the character in the song having his own experience and and that of Nabokov's character' experiences, placing them in separate, yet identical, situations. So that is why I say intertextuality, rather than allusion, is the literary device most at work here.
Here are the lyrics followed by the video:
Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
To round it all out, while doing a homework assignment for one of my Spanish classes I had to write something about a favorite song, so I chose "Wrapped Around Your Finger" because of my interest in the literary references. It was while doing that that I also found out that Sting writes lyrics in and also sings in Spanish (as well as French). That was icing on the cake for me. From then on he was my unattainable love (so to speak)! The two that come to mind are "Si estamos juntos/We'll Be Together" and "Fragile/Fragilidad"
Here are the Spanish lyrics for "Si estamos juntos" (I think I caught all the accent marks, but I might have missed some) but the video I could only find in English ("We'll Be Together")
Me veo aquí allí siempre junto a tí
En todo lo que pienso tu estás
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Acércate a mí y en mis sueño dime sí
Y pide lo que quieras de mí
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí...
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Te veo aquí allí siempre junto a mí
Bailando y besándome estas
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Acércate a mí y en mi sueño dime sí
Y pide lo que quieras de mí
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Dime nena, dime lo que quieres de mí
Dime nena, dime, dime...
Te veo a tí a mí tal vez seremos tres
Me veo aquí allí siempre junto a tí
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
I first came to know Sting as the lead singer for The Police, as many of us did. As a matter of fact, the first guy I really felt myself in love with, Jeff Kurta, had introduced The Police to me (and also Toto...I'll get to that later). So many of the songs Sting has written comprise the corpus of the soundtrack of my adult life, or so it seems to me. I find it intriguing how music has a way of connecting one to one's past in the split second he/she hears the first few notes of a familiar tune. It does so for me and other people I know say they experience that same sort of time travel.
The first time I had ever gone to Jeff's house he answered the door and I heard music in the background. It was Toto (Rosanna) I think. Later on, when Jeff moved with his mother and his step-father to Swaziland and then to South Africa, their song "Africa" came out on the radio. Could a song have fit more closely with my life at that moment, when the young man I loved lived in Africa and received weekly cards and letters from me?
On one of his visits back home to Montreal he came to Plattsburgh to visit me. At the time, I worked as a cashier at Ames Department Store and a store called Record Town was in the same shopping center. On the day of his visit, I had to work and couldn't get the day off. Since his father had dropped him off and would be back to pick him up later at an agreed meeting point (those too were the times of no cell phones), we hung out at my apartment on Couch Street and then he and I took a taxi to Ames for me to start my shift that afternoon. On my break, he met me outside of Ames and gave me a 45 vinyl record with "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. From that point on my appreciation for their music grew and morphed into a more refined appreciation for Sting's lyrics and his work as a solo artist.
One of the things that appealed to me most about his lyrics was the allusions to and intertextuality of works of literature and/or of literary characters. The set of lyrics that comes to mind most vividly is those of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" in which are included "the Scylla and Charibdes", an allusion to The Odyssey by Homer. Then further on is referenced Mephistopheles from Faust. Wanting to learn the lyrics to the songs to sing along, these references sparked my curiosty. Since I didn't know the works then to what they alluded I could not help wonder what these were, but I immediately was attracted to their inclusion. I remember thinking "How cool to include literature in lyrics."
Here are the lyrics followed by the video of the song. (Like the video...surpisingly this is the first time I've ever seen it. Don't know how THAT happened.) :
You consider me the young apprentice
Caught between the Scylla and Charibdes.
Hypnotized by you if I should linger
Staring at the ring around your finger.
I have only come here seeking knowledge,
Things they would not teach me of in college.
I can see the destiny you sold
turned into a shining band of gold.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
Mephistopheles is not your name,
But I know what you're up to just the same.
I will listen hard to your tuition,
And you will see it come to it's fruition.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
Devil and the deep blue sea behind me
Vanish in the air you'll never find me.
I will turn your face to alabaster,
Then you'll find your servant is your master,
And you'll be wrapped around my finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.
You'll be wrapped around my finger.
I'll be wrapped around your finger.....
Another song written by Sting is "Don't Stand So Close to Me" which, to me, is a case more of intertextuality than allusion (though a case could be made for intertextuality for "Wrapped Around Your Finger" easily enough). Intertextuality is, so not to get bogged down too much with literary terms, is taking a work of art (most often a written work, but other media have been used to produce the same effect) and including it in another work, not just by mentioning it, but by interweaving the first with in the second. Here we find that infamous work by Valdimir Nabokov, Lolita, interwoven in the story that the song lyrics tells. The story line of the song and that of Nabokov's book draw so many parallels that the lines between their distinct forms become blurred. Now you might think that this song is about the book Lolita but because he writes "Just like the old man in / that book by Nabokov" he makes a distinction between the character in the song having his own experience and and that of Nabokov's character' experiences, placing them in separate, yet identical, situations. So that is why I say intertextuality, rather than allusion, is the literary device most at work here.
Here are the lyrics followed by the video:
Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
To round it all out, while doing a homework assignment for one of my Spanish classes I had to write something about a favorite song, so I chose "Wrapped Around Your Finger" because of my interest in the literary references. It was while doing that that I also found out that Sting writes lyrics in and also sings in Spanish (as well as French). That was icing on the cake for me. From then on he was my unattainable love (so to speak)! The two that come to mind are "Si estamos juntos/We'll Be Together" and "Fragile/Fragilidad"
Here are the Spanish lyrics for "Si estamos juntos" (I think I caught all the accent marks, but I might have missed some) but the video I could only find in English ("We'll Be Together")
Me veo aquí allí siempre junto a tí
En todo lo que pienso tu estás
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Acércate a mí y en mis sueño dime sí
Y pide lo que quieras de mí
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí...
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Te veo aquí allí siempre junto a mí
Bailando y besándome estas
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Acércate a mí y en mi sueño dime sí
Y pide lo que quieras de mí
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
Dime nena, dime lo que quieres de mí
Dime nena, dime, dime...
Te veo a tí a mí tal vez seremos tres
Me veo aquí allí siempre junto a tí
Qué importa el tiempo si los dos estamos juntos
Sí contigo puedo soñar
Mi amor es así un fuego por tí
Si estamos juntos, y si me dices que sí
Si estamos juntos
Si estamos juntos
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