Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Micky wanders around a Junkyard in 1967

For a phenom that's almost 50 years old, there's an amazing amount of new stuff.

Micky in a rare, silent, clip-filmed in a junkyard.  Cars from the 1930's, mostly; him from 1967.  He just hangs around pretending to be a vagabond.  (I muted the music because the style was too incongruent).  Just wandering around, goofing off.



Seeing it now, in 2013, as a fully grown adult, I wonder how many injuries The Boys had.  I'm sure they'd say there were some bumps and bruises.  But in this world today, I can't even imagine the freedom to bounce around like that.  (Tetanus, broken or twisted ankles jumping down from the top of a car).  They did all their own goofy stunts.  But maybe as children and young adults we are much more resilient than we remember.   Young men with way too much courage, trying to show off for the cameras.  I can barely imagine what it would be like to be a young man with new muscles and new energy and new confidence in the present and future.

I love the cheap quality of the film stock and also the palette (oranges, yellows), which might not have been entirely intentional.  Last night I watched "Searching for Sugarman" again about the singer Sixto Rodriguez.  That has some scenes that have a similar glow.  There's something achingly beautiful in the detritus of previous generations.  There are shots of smoke surrounded by an orange haze, that look so visually beautiful-a fluid work of art.




Leonard Cohen's song, Suzanne, (which Peter hates for its dour tone.  It's depressive, indeed, but that's what art is for.  To be true.) "She shows you where to look amid the garbage and the flowers".  I've always been haunted by that song, even when I was young, even before I knew people like that.  Now it seems all the beautiful poets I know wear things from Salvation Army counters.



Really, what is the difference between "trash" and the leftovers from previous generations (think: Monkee set), and the horrible beauty of Detroit's urban decay and the way we live now?  Maybe the stuff in landfills offers us amnesia and everything else, like Roman ruins, offer insights into the past.  And allows us to understand our place on the timeline of history.

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