Last night, my wife and I were watching a few minutes of The Sound of Music, the 50th anniversary Blu-Ray edition. We had started it the night before, while babysitting our second granddaughter for the first time. This version contains a nifty "My Favorite Things" function that allows you to select one of four special features: production photos, sing-along lyrics, movie/real-world facts, and trivia. We had activated the lyrics and facts, so during the "Do Re Me" song montage of Salzburg, Austria locales, up popped the caption stating that filming began in April 1964. Now, savvy movie aficionados (or buffs) know that The Sound of Music is a quintessential 1965 film, which marks its 60th anniversary this year in 2025. You can even see it in theatres for a brief run this coming September. And therein lies the theme of this latest installment of Matthew's Musings, Time Delay.
The title of this post immediately sprang to mind, along with the beginnings of a musing. Do I keep it to myself or share it with others? Well, if you're reading this, then you know the answer...
A piece of art, writing, or entertainment is defined by the time it is presented, published, or released. However, in most instances (with the exception of electronic writing, such as this blog), there is a gap in time between when the work is developed and when it is ready for public consumption. Subconsciously (or maybe even consciously) we understand this, but that doesn't stop our time association with whatever it is to be slightly askew from actual reality. Thus, creating a perception reality that is just as real to us and more impactful.
Can I just say it's a lot more difficult to write when I'm fighting Grammarly all the way! Enough with your suggestions, you're stifling my voice!! And I'll use two spaces after a period if I want to!!! Although I do appreciate the help with spelling.
This happens all the time. Portions of movies are shot months or years in advance; the most extreme example being 5-25-77, where the main scenes were shot from 2004 to 2006, even though the film wasn't released until 2022! Comics are often prepared four months in advance of when they hit the stands, and then they (used to) have a three-month postdate. I have a copy of Godzilla #8 on my spinner rack, dated March 1978, but it was actually published in December 1977, and likely drawn in August 1977. Same goes for music. In the 2016 Doctor Strange film, the good doctor (or I guess you should say the selfish [insert your own pejorative term here]) has a trivia contest in the operating room, where he's being quizzed on the release dates of certain songs. Someone throws out "Feels So Good", and Strange answers with a 1977 date. The person objects, saying it came out in 1978. Both are correct after a fashion, with one citing the album release date and the other citing the single release date. And that's not even accounting for the time it took the single to rise in the charts and into the public's zeitgeist (May/June 1978).
If you think it's taking too long to get to my point, try writing about it. I'm almost at the two-hour mark.
When I say "1977", what springs to mind? Star Wars, Spy Who Loved Me, Smokey and the Bandit, Saturday Night Fever, Marvel Comics' Godzilla, and Matthew: Year One (unabashed plug). These things, the movies at least, were cultural phenomena (I wanted to say phenomenons, but apparently that's not a dictionary word) and they are defining elements of 1977. Except for Fever, the other films were all really shot in 1976! You can even tell in Bandit when you see all the Bicentennial decorations. Except for period pieces, it can make your head hurt, thinking it's one year, but really seeing a time capsule of another. And it also explains a longstanding mystery for me. How Angela Cartwright appears so much younger in The Sound of Music than she did in Lost in Space when both came out in 1965. It was probably a year or more between filming the two.
There's another aspect that I want to touch on, and that's Time Appreciation. Sure, it's fine and dandy to have seen Star Wars when it first hit theatres (or a week or two after - I even remember the place, Chesterfield Mall [original incarnation]). But you don't have to have "been there" to be affected by a piece of art. So, there can be a different time for when you begin to appreciate something, and even rediscover your appreciation. And it becomes a personal zeitgeist for you, forever associating your discovery or experience with a particular time of your life, maybe multiple times, which can become memory touchstones thereafter.
If calling some of these things "art" offends you, then "sorry, not sorry".
You can read what I wrote about her here. Look for the ladder picture post.
"I've been rereading my Bond novels over the last couple of months: Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, and just started Diamonds are Forever. This is the first time rereading them in nearly 37 years and they're fantastic. I'm at an age where even when I remember stuff, I don't remember it completely anymore, so it's like it's almost new to me. Many of them are quite different from the films. Manny and I watched all the non-Daniel Craig movies over the last year, which was a lot of fun (for me)."
I ended up getting stalled on The Spy Who Loved Me, before finishing it maybe a year to two later, and then I loved it. So, I eventually completed the whole series. And I'm now rewatching the non-Craig Bond films with a friend, which has been a lot of fun since he had never seen any of them. We're watching them mostly in order, but rotating by actor: Doctor No, OHMSS, Live & Let Die, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, From Russia with Love, etc. We just finished The World is Not Enough yesterday, and You Only Live Twice is next. I didn't want him to get attached to any particular "Bond". The point is that I now have fond memories of Bond novels several times in my life: 1983 & 2020-21+.
We may not all walk around like John Shaft with Issac Hayes music playing in the background, but these "things" become part of the soundtrack of our lives. And if you schedule your driving music well (or listen to music a lot), you can program some audio tracks, and it's like being in a movie. For me, everything is better with music. There was that one time when I played "City of Blinding Lights" by U2 twice for a perfect drive through Cincinnati at night on I-75...
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him -- for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work -- this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.
Thanks for reading! Take care until next time...whenever that may be.
Very nice memories, shared well.
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