Somewhere in Time

Revisiting the Past. Reinventing the Future. These themes are the bread and butter that Hollywood lives on, Universal themes, if you will. The idea of going back in time to correct mishaps and to revisit and recapture old glories is an alluring one that reverberates perpetually. Who wouldn't want to go back in time to sow their wild oats while making a few minor correction along the way? This very theme is revisited in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris."

I should note here that I avoid at all costs anything and everything involving the Wilson brothers but I was compelled by Allen's latest handiwork. Anyways, the film features Wilson as a novelist, accompanied by his uptight fiance(Rachel McAdams), who is magically transported to Paris in the 1920s. He hangs out and parties with Cole Porter, F. Scott and Zelda  Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunel, Pablo Picasso, and Gertrude Stein. Obviously, this is a dream come true for Wilson, the opportunity of a lifetime.

Social Dissonance is an underlying theme for the film-Wilson obviously feels ill at ease in his own time and no doubt feels that a simpler, happier time would alleviate many of his problems. The Golden Age. I must admit that I too have pondered  this idea at great length. If I were to be drawn back in time I would favor being transported somewhere within the Victorian Age. Musically, Romanticism was all the rage, anything Baroque deemed quaint and out of fashion. This was Francisco Tarrega's world. This era was the calm before the storm-who knew that World War I was right around the corner?

On the topic of revisiting old paths, I decided to go back and listen to "Loveless" from My Bloody Valentine. I wish that I could say that I read about them in Pitchfork or in Rolling Stone but the truth is that a long while back, when I still read guitar magazines, I read a mostly unflattering review of the band and its work. That did it-I was hooked. When I first listened to My Bloody Valentine I felt like I was in a very long, reverby tunnel where everything is constantly in motion, in a state of Vibrato. I initially found the music repugnant and yet I somehow was drawn to it-its fuzzy, punk, and out-of-tune vibe stuck out like a sore thumb. My old Audio Engineering teacher, Ray Dillard, gave me the greatest piece of advice ever: If at first you don't like a piece of music, listen to it another ten times. I have carried his words of wisdom with me ever since.

So there you have it: Midnight in Paris and "Loveless" from My Bloody Valentine. Go check them out and maybe that gray little cloud hanging above your life will slowly dissipate.