Sunday, April 15, 2007

Across the Universe


We went to the cinema last night, saw "Perfect Stranger", it was not bad, not wonderful either. What gave me goosebumps and has remained in my mind, was a trailer shown before the main feature.

A movie called "Across the Universe", due to be released at the end of September is being advertised already. It was this trailer which touched a nerve for me. The movie is set in the 1960s with Beatles music threaded all the way through it.

During the 1960s I wasn't a hippie or a Beatles fan. My own life was in some turmoil, living through and getting rid of a bad marriage, so I had other things on my mind.

Since I met HeWhoKnows and came to live in the USA I've become a "Born Again Beatles Fan". Surprisingly, for such an avid jazz fan, HeWhoKnows practically idolises the Beatles, as do most of his family. I've been indoctrinated, I guess, because as soon as the trailer began last night with deafening strains of "Hey Jude", and a lad with a Liverpool accent, I got goosebumps, even more so as the trailer progressed into the Vietnam war era.

I remembered that in the late Maya del Mar's piece "The Road to 2012", which I linked to the other day, she had said that the years around 2011 will be
a "breakthrough time of the revolution begun with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 60’s. During this period, the seeds planted in the 60’s can break through to expression. Those people born during the 60’s will have special parts to play."

I wonder if this movie will be an overture to the coming years, a "ghost of revolutions past" pointing the way to revolutions to come. I wonder if the producers and director were 1960s babies with the echo of those years imprinted in their very being.

"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting through my open mind
Posessing and caressing me ... jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world"
(
Lennon-McCartney, "Across the Universe")

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just listened to the Beatles' White Album last night!
I just love them. Their earlier stuff is interesting to listen to in a referential way, but the stuff after 1967 is what I really feel stongly about. The Ballad of John and Yoko always makes me cry. I feel a real kinmenship with the music.

Twilight said...

I think it was their earlier stuff which put me off their music, Chrispito. It seemed so "jingly" at the time. Probably the records they did with Brian Epstein.

I'm learning all the time that there's so much more to the Beatles than I ever realised.
Better late than never, eh?