I’ve been writing like crazy these past few weeks.
Over the weekend, I put down 20,433 words—to be exact. My eyes hurt, but my
heart is content. This is what I love to do.
It’s all about the story…
Recently, I’ve been going out of my way to notice
other artists and their story telling—the singer and her song, the painter and
the flow of the colors on his canvas, the dancer and the dance…etc. I watched
an old Judy Garland movie from 1954, the original, A Star is Born. It’s quite a sad story. The thing that
caught my eyes and ears was Judy—not her acting, but her singing. In the movie,
she played a singer, Esther Blodgett, who is discovered by a very famous actor.
Unfortunately, the actor is an alcoholic and his own career is in deep jeopardy.
They marry, she loves him dearly no matter what he does, and saves him over and
over. The real conflict, however, is that his job opportunities become non-existent
because of his boozing while she rises to super stardom. He is pulling her down
and he knows it. Of course, the story ends in complete disaster and is very painful
to watch. There was a remake of this movie in 1976 with Kris Kristofferson and
Barbra Streisand.
Sorry, sort of got side tracked on the
story, back to Judy now…
Judy Garland was older in this movie, into her thirties.
We all remember her as the sweetheart, Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz. Even back then, when she was sixteen and sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow in a Kansas
barnyard, it made us cry by her magic storytelling with words and music. I can
hear Somewhere Over The Rainbow sung
by others without getting those same goosey emotions. It was the way Judy told
the story about a special place that brought a tear to my eyes, and I believed
her every second that she sang it. She was that good.
In A Star is
Born, there is this scene where she gets “discovered” by James Mason, who
plays the boozing actor, Norman Maine. She is in a nightclub, it’s very late,
and it’s just her and the boys in the band just playing for the love of it. She
sings for them this song called, The Man
That Got Away. The song is about love gone wrong, but when Judy sings it, I
truly believe her. I believe she’s been burned by this scoundrel, and I feel
her heart break. I got major goose bumps and found myself humming that tune
days later.
It’s all about the story…
There are so many stories being told if you look
around for them. The way the landscaper designs a garden, the sculpture in the
park, the clothes designer’s latest fall fashions, the director and his vision,
the songstress, the novelist, the street performer, and the architect’s
latest building…and so on.
It’s all about the story…
What do you think? What
stories have you noticed lately? There is so much creativity in the world. I
would love to hear from you.
Below is the best Youtube
version of the song sung by Judy from the movie, A Star is Born. If you read the comments below the Youtube, you see
that I’m not the only person who felt the goose bumps. Her singing talent was
immeasurable.
Between you, me and
the gatepost,
Loree
