Re: Russian music/Blues

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

On Wed, 23 Apr 1997, Thanh Dang Nguyen wrote:

> But at the
> same time, I respect artistic works like "Casablanca". Its setting,
> timing and playing is magnificient and captivating. And still I'm not
> talking about the young and beautiful Ingrid Bergman, who played for
> the first time with the legendary actor Humphrey Bogart. 

Hi Thanh, as far as I know, Bogart was nothing near legend before
"Casablanca". I was told that "Casablanca" was the one that made Bogart a
leading actor of that time.

> > Have you ever watched a French film called "The adventurers", starring
> > Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, and a cute girl whose name I forgot.
> 
> Thanks again to the Hungarian, I watched that movie many years ago in
> black-and-white. It was a very romantic story about friendship, and love,
> typical of the French style. Somehow I always prefer the French romanticism to
> its American counterpart. It's more life-like I think.

Even in the most romantic French story/film you can detect a trace of
cynicism. That is what you call life-like.

The music in "The adventurers" was beautiful, Delon was at his peak of
masculinity and acting career, and the final shooting at the lone
abandoned castle in the middle of the sea was both romantic and
spectacular. 

> > How about us talking about blues? I heard that you like blues. Some people
> > (especially those just coming from VN) got the wrong impression that this
> > is an exclusively black music. I think that this (and jazz) is actually
> > the music of upper-middle-class America.
> 
> Upper-middle-class ???? How do you know that? Blues, let me get it straight,
> is just like another kind of music, except that, in my opionion, it is
> the most honest music ever invented. 
....
> Blues has nothing to do
> with race, education, age, musical skills or whatsoever, but FEELING.
> Blues is life, in short!

When I said blues and jazz seem to be the music of upper-middle-class
America (OK, lets get rid of the word "upper"), I was talking about a
social phenomenon, not trying to define blues and jazz as a
social status-based music genre.

> > Or here is an equally fascinating topic: let's try to describe America!
> 
> Seems to me you're extremely ambitious! :-) Well, we don't have to do
> that! Read Kurt Vonnegut instead! Seriously, we can be back to this huge
> topic later ....

Seems like you misunderstood me. I am interested in knowing what YOU think
and feel about America, not about what Mr. Vonnegut has to say.

I am interested in trying to express MY feelings and thoughts about
America, and share them with those interested. This is in no way different
from doing the same with music, literature, painting, film, etc. So I
don't understand why this would be an "extreme ambition".

Anyhoo, if you insist on starting with some author, perhaps the person to
start with is Walt Wittman (sp?) and his "Grass Leaves". However, I feel
that I haven't been mature (or perhaps smart) enough to understand and
enjoy much of what he had to say. 

Cheers, Hai.