Hallelujah, Thank You, Leonard

Here we are again at that pivotal time of year. The hard-working dark days of November and December have come and gone and the holiday season is upon us! I will be working off-and-on throughout the season, but still I am hoping for some serious R&R at times. I am not a religious man, at least not in the western god fearing Christian sense - but the mixed up Jewish, Catholic, slyly sexy "Hallelujah" has always rung a sweet chord with me - and it comes in handy this time of year. Thank you, Leonard. More recently, the late Jeff Buckley gave us a special gift in his version of the tune. Here's the lyrics. Feels okay to publish them here like a poem given Mr. Cohen's propensities in that area. Happy Holidays.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Let it Snow!

Well, it is that time of year again... The time that I invariably catch the remarkable, incomparable Jimmy Stewart in one of his landmark roles for the big screen, Frank Capra's 1946 masterpiece "It's a Wonderful Life." I am working on a film right now that requires visual effects to provide "snow augmentation" so as I flipped channels and came across this marvelous film, I initially just stopped surfing to think about how the crew accomplished so much damned falling snow in the film. But, of course, not much more than a moment passed before I was drawn in by Stewart's amazing, frenetic, emotionally relentless performance. There is something so convincing in his eyes in this film, the performance never fails to grab me. Of course, the spirit of the time, and it's likable themes don't hurt. But man, he's just incredible isn't he? No matter the cynicism these days about the schmaltz of the Christmas season and its overbearing commercialism, those eyes just cut right through to the heart of what Christmas means to so many people. Believing in doing the right thing. Seeing the good that comes from the struggle to achieve something morally right. People banding together to recognize and thank those who have been so generous to them in their lives. It is all that and much more.

The Red Violin

Remember "The Red Violin?" An amazing Canadian film from Don McKellar? Check out this sequence. It came up in a pitch meeting recently. About 4 minutes into the clip you the see the red violin stationary in the frame while many different players and settings fade in and out again. Ori Ben-Shabat and I were pitching some ideas for titles for a new client. We wanted to present the idea of a significant object that remained in the frame at all times, because it is important. But that somehow the object recedes for the viewer, becoming somehow subconscious even though it is there at all times. That's an amazingly cool, simple idea... The violin is there the whole time, so it starts to drift away, becoming subconscious, and you focus on what is changing instead of what is there all the while... McKellar used it as a device to sell the passage of time. But we wanted to use it to link together disparate moments in the history of the object without being didactic. Wicked... Anyway, I thought I would just mention how cool I think this sequence is in Mr. McKellar's film. As a side note, a friend of mine, Bradshaw Crombie grew up next door to Don in Toronto. Anyone want to play "six degrees of separation?"