The Perfect Score

I read a Q&A with Baz Luhrmann in the WSJ a few days ago. The guy is a creative genius. Anyone who can envision the aesthetically-scrumptious Moulin Rouge or make opulent dreams reality on the silver screen in The Great Gatsby has my full attention. Even his name Luhrs me right in….(crickets). I’m not writing about Baz, but about music, which is apparently an important part of his life. Here’s what Baz says on the subject…

I always travel with: music. There’s almost nothing more enjoyable than being in a car or plane with a soundtrack in my ears. One time someone said, “There’s no culture in L.A.” I turned on the rock station in a sports car, put the top down and said, “Yes, there is. This is it.” It’s as relevant as something in a museum.

Baz does not mean movie soundtracks…just his life’s soundtrack. And when there is a certain genre paired with a certain landscape, things do seem magnified and at their grandest. Even L.A., I suppose.

Gatsby’s playground

I was driving up to the outdoor mall I work at this morning and had Pandora on, which is really roulette if you’re seeking the most fitting soundtrack. But I like surprises. When a perfect track sneaks up on me, it’s much sweeter than anticipating it. The drive up through the Catalina Foothills is gorgeous. You weave in and out of desert hills, quickly rising in altitude. Sometimes it’s from a distance when you grasp the magnitude of something, like seeing the Grand Canyon from space (which I have not done). The Tucson mountains are different. The closer I get to them, the more I am floored by their unique grooves which all use the morning/noon/evening light in different ways. As I’m getting into the grooviest part of the drive, nearly to the La Encantada mall, “Your Hand in Mine” by Explosions in the Sky came on. If you do not know the band, they’re a potent dose of overlapped electrical guitar which you might recognize from the soundtrack of Friday Night Lights. All of a sudden (brace yourself, you might cringe) I wanted to cry, because I thought the mountains were more glorious than ever as Explosions in the Sky plucked away at their guitars and at my heart strings. Music is so powerful. I think I appreciate it more since I have no musical proclivities whatsoever. I’m just in awe, the same way I’m in awe of how bluetooth in my car works…I do not get it. I see a bunch of rainbow pixels flying over me, like Wonka TV, and then the songs on my phone blare out of my Jeep speakers miraculously. So you can only imagine how majorly my mind was blown by the perfect pairing of song and scenery all made possible by bluetooth. Moral of the story, the world is at its most beautiful when paired with the right music.

See Anthropologie? Basically built into the mountain side.

I’m a big believer that the best movies are the best because of the emotion the soundtrack yanks out of the audience. Even stubborn, wannabe stoics like me. There are certain places in my mind that are far more impacted by sounds than words. I remember my insanely-gifted, musician brother Luke, saying Home Alone was undeserving of such a stellar soundtrack. I was offended for a second, because I love Home Alone! But I thought about the scenes I’m most affected by: the heart-wrenching time sweet Old Man Marley sat down beside Kevin in church and Kevin’s mama coming home to him at last, after her hysterical trip with the legendary John Candy. What makes tears well-up during those scenes? The chillingly beautiful “O Holy Night” rendition by a really great children’s choir and the absolutely sacred John Williams soundtrack.

I love Old Man Marley

Music was in the forefront of my mind tonight after watching The Giver. It was terrific. I highly recommend it. Visuals were on point, acting was refreshingly authentic and I’m assuming the musical score was excellent too, because my eyes leaked a bit at the end. The music was stirring and somehow made me more empathetic. I felt like I was having an epiphany with Jonas (protagonist) who is rapidly realizing how twisted the perfect world he lives in is. The music was composed by Marco Beltrami, who has done a lot of sci-fi and thriller music, which fit his chilling style well.

Another enlightened thought from my brother: watch any movie with a score by Thomas Newman. There’s a 98% chance you’ll love whichever movie accompanies his soundtrack. Shawshank Redemption, WALL-E, American Beauty, The Help, Finding Nemo, Meet Joe Black, The Green Mile, Fried Green Tomatoes…the list goes on. Luke introduced me to Thomas Newman when I was in 7th or 8th grade. We sat up into the wee hours of the night listening to the Shawshank Redemption soundtrack on the screen porch of my Grandma’s log cabin, on the coast of Lake Michigan. A relentless lightning show was illuminating the lake and every cloud in the sky. Drumming thunder rolled on and fell in perfect rhythm with the soundtrack of Andy Dufresne escaping Shawshank Prison the stormy night of his redemption.

Did not photograph lightning over Lake Michigan. Just trust it was as lovely as this.

If I could have a soundtrack to my life, I’d request it be written by Thomas Newman. But then I might cry as I’m struck by the beauty of mundane tasks like taking out my trash. I’d probably be better off with a David Bowie or Ace of Base soundtrack, something I would not take too seriously. Music can take something of passing beauty and bolster it to an indelible snapshot of life. Songs have been the perfect mnemonic to recall so many of my favorite memories. Now go listen to this and watch the snow fall if it happens to be snowing….or better yet, go watch Little Women, one of the loveliest, most underrated films ever made. Soundtrack by Thomas Newman, of course.