"it is my father's music" the winter's tale; iv, iv

So tonight I went down to a local tavern called Bovi's and listened to their regular Monday night act, a jazz band called the John Allmark Orchestra. These guys really know what they're doing. My father knows pretty much everything there is to know about jazz -- he grew up in NYC, going to clubs to hear Miles, Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and all the rest when they were in their prime -- and he seems to think trumpet player John Allmark and his band are the bees knees, at least in terms of local music, but even just generally. Tonight, Allmark took a solo and my dad leaned over to me and said, "He was just born to do this."

The band finished up their set with a version of "West End Blues" by Louis Armstrong; they did it in a somewhat more modern blues style than the recording at the above link ... and anyway, hearing that style of music, for some reason, one of my favorite scenes in a crappy movie popped into my head.

The scene is from Adventures in Babysitting. Chris has followed her asshole boyfriend into a blues bar (this being Chicago and all), and when she's ready to leave she finds herself trapped, confronted with an agressive band, whose leader insists that "nobody leaves this place without singing the blues". AND SO SHE DOES! At first everything she says to try to explain her way out of it is agressively punctuated by the band with the classic blues riff "da-DAH-da-da-dah!" - but have no fear, she gets into it quite quickly - she does after all, have quite a lot to sing the blues about.

THEY JUST DON'T MAKE MOVIES LIKE THIS ANYMORE! I'm sorry, you would never see this happen in a movie today. Not even close. The only teen movie I can think of that even approaches this kind of lighthearted goofiness is maybe "10 Things I Hate About You," with its funny little scene where Heath Ledger sings "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" over the school stadium PA. But that's SO NOT EVEN CLOSE.

Of course, some people would say that it's a good thing that they don't make movies like this anymore.

But not me! I love how absurd they are! I know they're not Good Movies. But they were made with such earnestness that I find them impossible not to love.

I know almost all my posts so far have referenced some dumbass bit of 80s pop culture, and if that irritates any of the 3 readers of this blog, well, too bad. This is the culture that shaped me, for better or worse! And I look on it fondly.

Oh, one other thing I feel I have to mention: there is an enigmatic listing on IMDB when you search for "Adventures in Babysitting" - it has the 1987 movie I referenced earlier, and a TV pilot version that came out shortly after that, but then it says "Adventures in Babysitting (2008)." When you click on it, it says that info is only available to members of IMDBpro. But all I can assume is that Hollywood has yet again shown itself unable to come up with new ideas and is about to remake this movie! Can you even imagine how they will update this movie? It will be horrible!!! Part of what made the movie great was that it came from a time when you could still believe that a group of kids from the suburbs would be awestruck by The City and all the dark dirtiness that lives and thrives there. Nowadays, cities are all Disneyfied anyway; there's nothing to be scared of. Just pop into the nearest Johnny Rockets if you're lost in a city and the waiters will serenade you with "YMCA" until your mom can come pick you up. I don't smell boxoffice sucess with this one, but I saw "Snakes on a Plane" at the 10pm pre-opening show. So what do I know.