Midnight Media Cafe - Gassenhauer

.

Gassenhauer - Carl Orff

from the soundtrack to the film Badlands (1973)


Most people know Carl Orff solely from his orchestral piece O Fortuna from Carmina Burana, but he wrote many lovely, gentle pieces that are light years from the heavy bombast of that well-known work. This one here is probably his second best-known work, from the Terence Malick film Badlands, starring a very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The character of this music stands in stark contrast to the subject matter of that film - although the movie begins with directionless youth, summer days, and hesitant love, it ends up in a very different place, and the unflagging cheerfulness of the theme serves to remind the viewer of where the characters started out, thus adding a touching pathos to their end.

For my part, this piece makes me want to dance. It carries hints of any number of folkloric styles, Andean and Central American in particular. To me it feels gentle, flirtatious, cheerful. It makes me think of sunlit spring festivals, smiles, ruffles flowing through air, green branches and rippling streams. A tune about the sweetness of life.


Download the .mp3 from MediaFire here.

Destop - Monkey family

.





( Click for desktop-size image )

As usual, Disney got it totally wrong

.

Hyenas - they're not what you think they are.


Is there any other mammal that people find as despicable as the hyena? If a creature is furry and nurses its young, usually we're willing to admit some mammalian fellow feeling. Among furred creatures, only the rat vies with the hyena for most loathed.

( Read on... )

Fascinating stuff. I've always found hyenas intriguing, in great part because everyone seemed to hate them. (I've learned to be skeptical of opinions like that, especially about animals.) Some really surprising facts in this article. I'm now wishing I could have the opportunity to see a hyena up close.

ETA: At the link that discusses the animals' "laugh", there is a sound file where you can hear one. Strange as it may seem, it's the first time I've actually heard it. I have to say, I have no idea why anyone would think it sounds like laughter. To me it sounds like an odd sort of chirping or half-bark, certainly not "giggling" or "cackling" as others have always described it. Humans are weird.