Boogie Nights, Love Actually and the Beach Boys
At the end of last week, I watched the last 15 minutes of Boogie Nights for only the second time (the first was in the theater, back when it came originally came out, whenever that was). While I hadn't forgotten about the, um, synthetic nature of parts of the end of the movie, I had forgotten about some details.
When I turned it on, Marky Mark and company were at that guys house - the drug deal gone awry part. Hearing "Sister Christian" and "Jessie's Girl" was more than vaguely familiar, but I'd forgotten that both songs were on "Awesome Mix #6." Since the anatomy of mix tapes and their recent demise has been a favorite thought topic of mine of late, I was full of nostalgic excitement when the tape cut off in the middle of Sister Christian and flipped itself over. Ah, I remember those days. And they weren't even that long ago - the last time I saw that scene, I still had several solid tape-making years ahead of me.
It's just interesting to me that mix tapes, such a prominent force in my formative years (I spent hours thinking about what songs to put on tapes and in what order) was such a short-lived pop culture phenomenon. A 20-year blip. Makes me feel sad and special all at once.
And then, moving on from mix tapes, following the bad coke scene, the movie closed to the sounds of the Beach Boys "God Only Knows"...prominently featured in my highly praised list of music. And at the end of Love Actually.
Interesting, I thought, how appropriate the song felt in both those movies, which, at first glance, are not particularly similar. Except that maybe they are. There's definite "10th grade English essay topic" potential in that comparision, especially when you look at the song as a basis for connection. I'm certainly not going to write that essay (I say, mockingly, as though I didn't write an unsolicited essay on Gatsby a few months ago). But I will say that the song's made me think a lot about loss (and temporary regain) of innocence and how it manifests itself in different lives and, on a cultural level, in different environments/times.
If only I actually had a reason to write papers on stuff like that...
When I turned it on, Marky Mark and company were at that guys house - the drug deal gone awry part. Hearing "Sister Christian" and "Jessie's Girl" was more than vaguely familiar, but I'd forgotten that both songs were on "Awesome Mix #6." Since the anatomy of mix tapes and their recent demise has been a favorite thought topic of mine of late, I was full of nostalgic excitement when the tape cut off in the middle of Sister Christian and flipped itself over. Ah, I remember those days. And they weren't even that long ago - the last time I saw that scene, I still had several solid tape-making years ahead of me.
It's just interesting to me that mix tapes, such a prominent force in my formative years (I spent hours thinking about what songs to put on tapes and in what order) was such a short-lived pop culture phenomenon. A 20-year blip. Makes me feel sad and special all at once.
And then, moving on from mix tapes, following the bad coke scene, the movie closed to the sounds of the Beach Boys "God Only Knows"...prominently featured in my highly praised list of music. And at the end of Love Actually.
Interesting, I thought, how appropriate the song felt in both those movies, which, at first glance, are not particularly similar. Except that maybe they are. There's definite "10th grade English essay topic" potential in that comparision, especially when you look at the song as a basis for connection. I'm certainly not going to write that essay (I say, mockingly, as though I didn't write an unsolicited essay on Gatsby a few months ago). But I will say that the song's made me think a lot about loss (and temporary regain) of innocence and how it manifests itself in different lives and, on a cultural level, in different environments/times.
If only I actually had a reason to write papers on stuff like that...
posted by Kit Pollard at
2:54 PM
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