color of night soundtrack
1.
Most days the alarm is part of sleep, a dream’s ramp into light… or dark. Most of the year, the alarm goes off before the sun does, and the sound’s fireworks are the color of night but many times louder.
I rise as if to shut a door against intrusion, stumbling from bed and listening, behind the noise, for my own footfall as if it were someone else’s. My knee might be stiffer today or less stiff. My calf may have unclenched at last or my shoulder quieted its own ancient reminder I’m no water-skier or shot-putter. Today mysterious energy might be in me, or I may be starting the long slog to dusk again.
These are the habits of the possessed. Any will goes into regarding yourself from afar, to see if the creature lives and moves and how.
The desire to be upright waits on coffee. The desire for coffee waits on nothing. Coffee is my unshakable consort, the bitter mistress of consciousness. Sometimes I fill the coffeemaker just before bedtime, set its alarm, and pray the smell and sound of brewing will be the next day’s first joy. Many mornings it is, some days it’s just one nice note, playing evenly all day long, and sometimes coffee is friction louder than whatever is cranking, a base tone of resistance.
People tell me they wake up automatically without an alarm, but I would have to fall as the sun fell to achieve that. Maybe someday, I think. The road I’m on must go somewhere.
2.
I’ve heard monks invented time. The first mechanical clocks marked periods of prayer, a strange genesis if it’s true. If prayer is security— self-soothing and reassuring claims of control, assertions of music in existence—the clock seems an unlikely instrument.
Wheels and cogs move invisibly, electricity arcs through transistors, particles or waves speed through silicoglyphs, and atoms strike plates. Relentless restlessness prods the world again.
I’ve gotten used to it but haven’t gotten to like it. The background fatigue of going to bed late and rising early can be measured, that’s all.
3.
My first act most mornings is to write a haiku, my only concession to advice I once received: don’t make lists of requirements, make lists of desires.
One can become the other.
When I started writing a haiku a day some years ago, I believed in the transformative power of habits. Most of the time I still believe, but sometimes a revelation breaks over me—what if invisibility is the essence of transformation? What if the gradual drip drip of what we do keeps us from seeing the shape we’re taking?
4.
Reliable sleep would help.
5.
For my eleventh birthday, my parents bought my first clock radio, a rolodex model. The digits of hours and minutes split into paddles, the seconds rolled around like an electric meter until, when the moment arrived, one half paddle loosed and slapped its predecessor.
Its incremental time brought new terror into life. I fell asleep awaiting another drop and awoke to another, a recording playing just like yesterday. In the rotation radio of 1969, I heard the same song for months. Its lament was a soundtrack that crawled into me and accompanied the same daily ablution, the same daily breakfast, the same daily ride to school on the same bicycle, the first of many wearying routines disguised as invisible workings.
6.
The intention to break patterns is my one regular resolution. I know I don’t have to do today what I did yesterday and can decide to stop drinking so much coffee, to go to bed earlier and get up later because believing in “must” is my biggest issue. I must step out of its shadow.
The same time that loops and cuts grooved paths in life also allows absolute invention, a new course.
And something operates quite apart from time, I’m sure of it.
7.
This morning, like most mornings, I’m up before everyone else. My haiku has been posted, and I’ve made my unwritten list for the day.
I know today’s necessities.
The house has a strange white quiet right now. In the dark of everyone else’s sleep, ceiling fans spin and the refrigerator hums and the air conditioner stirs in a cycle dictated by degrees. The corner of the computer tells me what time has passed since last I looked. My coffee dwindles. I may have time for another cup.
Soon I’ll move from this spot. I never leave without thinking of returning. Ungatherable statistics of waking, living, and breathing will accompany me. A ghost self is just out of step in this dance. He moves to another pace.
Something will soon remind him no moment lasts. And he won’t need reminding.
THE SHOW:
Will Ferrell has been one of the biggest breakout successes of the Saturday Night Live cast from the last 15 years. He was on the show for 7 seasons, from 1995 to 2002, and managed to spin his unique brand of blowhard humor first into bit parts in other people's comedies and then transforming into his own production juggernaut. The prolific comedian has had a series of hits and misses over the years, and had his share of cash-grabs, but his style has been one of the defining factors of 21st-century comedy. Ferrell is the one who set the standard for characters who believe they are unstoppable, and forge ahead with their crazy ideas with unquenchable fury, not realizing they aren't nearly as awesome as they think. His comedy is absurdist, it is awkward, and at its best, hilarious.
This summer, Ferrell is going for it again, starring in The Other Guys with Mark Wahlberg. To capitalize on this, and also probably to remind audiences how funny he can be after duds like Blades of Glory and Land of the Lost, the folks at SNL have done a repackaging of the earlier Best of Will Ferrell compilation discs and also put together a third one. Saturday Night Live: Best of Will Ferrell - Volume Three is another strong collection of some of the performer's best moments and best characters, and this one is not just limited to skits from his time as a cast member, but also draws from his return stints as guest host of the sketch comedy series.
One thing I'm reminded of watching these bits again is how far out on the emotional edge Ferrell sometimes takes his characters. While Anchorman Ron Burgundy or his Talladega Nights character Ricky Bobby--or on this DVD, his portrayal of Robert Goulet or Swiss superspy Luxury--are men at the top of their field who have been spoiled by their success, the actor also has a tendency to play characters who experience a bitter pain from failure. In skits included here, for instance, he plays a father who gets no respect at home and is probably lying about how much he gets at the office, and his anger and disappointment boils up in such explosive fury, it crosses all the way over into uncomfortably hysterical. Hell, even what was maybe his tail-end return as George W. Bush this time has the flop sweat of deflated hubris. At the same time, we are reminded that Ferrell can also play it sweet thanks to a fantastic "Cheerleaders" entry with Cheri Oteri.
That's probably the most satisfying pleasure of these "greatest hits" packages. Saturday Night Live: Best of Will Ferrell - Volume Three gives us the comedian's full range in one contained space. It's easy to forget there are so many different facets to Will Ferrell when he's busy cranking out movies that cast him as yet another deluded, macho sports figure. The full list of skits on this DVD are as follows:
* "Bush Endorsement Cold Open" - George W. Bush starts a show by forcing his endorsement on John McCain (Darrell Hammond) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey).
* "Theater Monologue" - Farrell as host sharing his serious dramatic side.
* "Goulet's New Bag" - The lounge singer sells ringtones and Goulet-Head cell phones.
* "Celebrity Jeopardy" - Guests include Bill Cosby (Kenan Thompson), Sharon Osbourne (Amy Poehler), and, of course, Sean Connery (Hammond).
* "The Lawrence Welk Show" - Ferrell as a singer who runs afoul of Kristen Wiig's mutated sister from the singing siblings from the Finger Lakes.
* "Cheerleaders - Chess" - Cheri Oteri and Ferrell as the Spartan Cheerleaders at a chess club tournament. The creative choreography and gung-ho performances make this a highlight of the set.
* "Family Dinner" - An awkward meal with angry father Ferrell, passive aggressive mother Ana Gasteyer, and adolescent daughter Sarah Michelle Gellar. (Why hasn't a post-Buffy Gellar booked a good comedy? She was always so funny on SNL.)
* "NBA on TNT" - A parody of aggressive bottom-of-the-screen advertising with Ferrell as a sitcom character charming basketballer Charles Barkley (a very funny Kenan Thompson).
* "Inside the Actors Studio" - Ferrell's harsh skewering of James Lipton, this time with Kate Hudson playing Drew Barrymore. (Note: I believe this sketch was actually on volume 2, as well.)
* "Convention" - Ferrell all on his own as a performer at a disastrous corporate retreat.
* "Do You Like Luxury?" - A marvelously absurd and daringly dry skit with Ferrell as a spy trying to pick up Maya Rudolph in a bar.
* "Barbeque" - Perhaps best known as "Get off the damn shed!" Featuring guest star Mariel Hemingway.
THE DVD
Video:
Though the DVD box lists an anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer, that's only partially true. This compilation has a combination of widescreen sketches and older full frame material. The full frame material is markedly lower in quality, not just in size, but in resolution. The older sketches have jagged lines and sometimes faded color. None of the shifts are too jarring or harmful to the viewing experience, but it's too bad the producers couldn't make the full frame skits look slightly better.
Sound:
The disc boasts a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, and I have to be honest, there isn't really much here to demand it. This is basic TV quality audio, and audio recorded live no less, so not a lot of effects that need the heightened sound quality.
Closed Captioning is also available for the deaf and hearing impaired.
Extras:
There are two sketches that were performed and filmed at dress rehearsal, but that were cut from the final show. One is a bit with the Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch "lovers" characters out on a camping trip, and the other stars Ferrell as a dorky ghost who can't get snooping kids from looking at his lame personal effects, reading his diary, or listening to his demo tape. It's fairly funny, though honestly there was likely no great loss in its getting cut from the broadcast. I always liked the lovers, though.
Green Day performs their song "East Jesus Nowhere" in an unaired segment featuring Ferrell on cowbell.
Finally, there is a photo gallery and a credits menu.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Highly Recommended. Saturday Night Live: Best of Will Ferrell - Volume Three is another nicely priced collection of clips for Will Ferrell fans. It features strong material and provides lots of laugh. A good little slab of comedy to have in your collection.
Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Jolle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent project is the comedy series Spell Checkers, again with Jones and artist Nicolas Hitori de. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.
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