Jill visits

“A Jill Visit”

            Going into last weekend, I was feeling out of touch.  How about you? – Okay, enough about you, let’s get back to me. – I felt stifled. And the crazy thing is, “stifled” is a verb and I seldom feel like a verb.. That’s the kind of mood I was in.

            So, I invited my kid sister, Jill, up for the weekend, ‘cause she’s good at rejuvenating my thinking thing. Brain. That’s what it is, my brain. Jill gladly agreed to spend a chunk of her three day weekend with us. She and I have completely different taste in things, be they food, books, movies and TV shows. – With respect to food, Jill does not like rotisserie chicken because it tastes too wet. I’m just going to let that sit there.

            With regard to movies and TV shows, my sister really likes reality TV. She knows the names of people on Big Brother and Survivor. She likes zombies. “The Walking Dead” is probably her favorite show. I haven’t told her this, but I think she sometimes wishes the situation was real. Like it might take a zombie attack to get this country on the right track. People are always looking for simple solutions.

            Movies? Jill likes scary movies. She seems to enjoy being frightened. She watched the trailer to the new movie “The Nun” and screamed each time at the split second appearance of a black clad figure. The first scream was from surprise, the next two screams were caused by… who can possibly know?

            Considering all the above, is it any wonder why I sought my sister’s help in pulling me out of  my ‘bout with constipation—I mean remoteness? That’s what I had, remoteness.

            Late Sunday night, after talking about grand kids, the job, experiences with rude people, I suggested I locate a movie on Amazon Prime. After about 30 minutes, I settled on “Bushwick.” It’s an action movie, with a hint of scary. Something for everyone.

            I wasn’t expecting much, but ended up really enjoying the movie. It was well produced and well acted. One of the lead actors was Dave Bautista, the muscular tattooed guy in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” A girl named Brittany Snow had the female lead. Those two people acted the daylights out of that movie. I don’t know where they got the rest of the cast, but they, too, were exceptional.

            Had it not been for Jill, I seriously doubt I would’ve picked the action-packed movie about a contemporary civil war in the US. Some of you will be pleased to know that, in the movie, Texas was the first state to secede. I wouldn’t have given that away had it not been mentioned in the previews. 

            After the movie, Jill suggested I find YouTube on the TV, and key in “The Good, the Bad and The Ugly music.” I’ve only seen “The G, B and U” about eight times, but I bought the movie soundtrack and listened to each of Ennio Morricone’s compositions over a hundred times. Jill told me to stop my search at the Danish (as in Denmark) National Symphony Orchestra’s symphony on Morricone’s music. I was going to go for the Bulgarian rendition, but Jill insisted on the Danes.

            The G,B, and U theme song has melodic screaming in it; lyrics that come across more as a succession of  hoots than words. It’s got instruments that make bizarre sounds, one of which is a pair of clapping wooden slats. Small, carved wooden flutes are periodically used. Violins, cellos, horns of every denomination, a couple of choirs... It’s one thing to hear the unusual music, another to see it being performed. As a favor, please visit YouTube and watch and listen to the Danish Orchestra’s performance. Not now! Sometime before bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkM71JPHfjk

           

            After about an hour of watching and listening to the Danish Orchestra, Jill told be to key in “Sound of Silence Disturbed.” I know the “Sound of Silence.” It’s anything but disturbing. It’s one of the most poignantly beautiful songs ever performed. No one should sing that song but Simon and Garfunkel..

            Turns out “Disturbed” is a heavy metal band whose lead singer, a guy named David Draiman, has two huge loose-leaf notebook binder rings stuck on his chin. I immediately told Jill that I was not interested in hearing him butcher “Sound of Silence.” She told me to just listen.

            When Draiman started his version of Sound of Silence, I told Jill that his voice was okay, but not nearly as captivating as Simon and Garfunkel. But, as the song progressed, the ringed-chin, heavy-metal singer became more emotional, and his voice turned the least bit raspy. When he got to the part “And, the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made!” He was really projecting. I didn’t know a voice that powerful could sound so beautiful. You now have two things to see sometime between now and bedtime.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg

            Jill and I viewed a few other YouTube videos before calling it a night. Kay called it a night at the beginning of  “Bushwick.” Before heading to the guest room, my kid sister kissed me goodnight and told me how much she needed the visit. I assured her I did too.

            I don’t know how it works, but after Jill’s visit I felt so much better about things. Maybe it has to do with taking time to talk about and view things you generally don’t. Gives one a sense of connectiveness. -- Connectiveness may not be a real word, but if it were it’d be a noun, not a verb. I seldom feel like a verb.

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Mark can be contacted at hayter.mark@gmail.com. Visit Amazon Books to order Hayter's novel, “The Summer of 1976.”