Frost/Apatow/Zevon

Ok. Posting directly to ze blog, so if punctuation and spelling go awry, don't say I didn't tell you. Also warning all that I am determined to work in a Robert Frost poem and a Warren Zevon song somewhere. No particular reason. If I find anything linking the two during the course of writing this, I'll let you know. Or you let me know. All good?

First off then, Funny People, long-awaited, released 2009. Judd Apatow's last, Knocked Up, was a warm, perceptive look at that part of the male psyche that never wants to grow up and never wants to abandon his guy friends, cloaked in the guise of a warm, perceptive, borderline-disgusting romantic comedy. Funny People takes the bitterness and bite that existed on the fringes of Knocked Up and builds an uncomfortable world around it. The stand-up comics in this movie compete for everything - applause, wealth, sexual and social standing. Like everything Apatow has done its bitingly funny, and for the first time there are no safety nets. Seth Rogen's friends in Knocked Up may be shallow, but they never abandon him. In this movie, it's literally every man for himself, whether he be a millionaire or someone working at Otto's diner, in need of compassion or a few decent jokes.

Ultimately, the movie is about missed chances, and how we romanticize them, and how they may not be worth crying over after all. The soundtrack may or may not be a reflection of this, depending on how much depth you credit Apatow and his music in-charge with. Included are songs from the solo careers of all four Beatles, as if to say, this is what you are capable of on your own, so stop wondering about what may have been and count your blessings. Articulating this even better is a Warren Zevon number off his final album. Its called 'Numb as a statue' and I'm assuming you're all going to rush off and hear it immediately (though in the off chance that you aren't, I'll re-print the lyrics below and add a video link. I can do no more).

I'm numb as a statue
I may have to beg, borrow or steal
Some feelings from you
So I can have some feelings too

I'm pale as a ghost
You know what I love about you
That's what I need the most
I'm gonna beg, borrow or steal
Some feelings from you
I'm gonna beg, borrow or steal
So I can have some feelings too

I don't care if it's superficial
You don't have to dig down deep
Just bring enough for the ritual
Get here before I fall asleep

Ain't nothing special
When the present meets the past
I've always taken care of business
I've paid my first and last

And while we're on missed chances - 'What fifty said', Robert Frost. That line about giving up fire for form. Sigh. Exactly.

When I was young my teachers were the old
I gave up fire for form till I was cold
I suffered like a metal being cast
I went to school to age to learn the past

Now I am old my teachers are the young
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture
I go to school to youth to learn the future