City of Angels

Up late again. I started cross-stiching tonight after talking to Mom when I got home from work. I ended up cross-stiching for FOUR hours. And didn't realize it until I looked at the clock. 

And then, naturally, instead of going to bed, I started looking at Youtube. Watched some performances of Sarah McLachlan, including her song "Angel," which was used on the soundtrack of the movie City of Angels. So, I went and listened to the gorgeous instrumental tracks over again. And here they are for your listening pleasure. Just to warn ya, some of them are a little long. And, yeah, you'll have to turn my player off at the bottom of the page.

An Angel Falls



The Unfeeling Kiss

Spreading Wings

City of Angels



Like most of my favorite soundtracks, I was exposed to the music LONG before the movie. The night before Nikki left for college, back in 2001, we all sat in the big girls' room and listened to these four instrumental tracks. I think it was the first or second time I had ever heard this music and it just seemed to fit the loss and change that the next day would bring to our circle. Nikki's leaving was the first of the major changes that happened that year. I remember feeling scared at the idea that my sisters were getting so much older and starting to leave home. Which isn't entirely fair; my oldest sister, Kjerstina, had been gone from home since I was four. With the age difference, I guess it didn't mean much to me that she was gone. But Nikki had always been there.

Five years later, or thereabouts, I actually saw the movie and loved it. It is the only role of Nicholas Cage's that I can respect. He was perfect as the otherworldly, strange, child-like angel. But, seriously, I cannot stand any of his other movies! And my mom is such a big fan of his. Aack. Haha.

Oh, and the quote from Hemingway used in the movie has always stuck with me, describing the way oysters taste. And, cuz I'm crazy, I went and found it online:

"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans."

There's something about the way that Nicholas Cage reads this passage that makes it sound even better. Don't know what it is...finally read A Moveable Feast last year, back in August.

What I will never forget is when, in my first class of Humanities 101, my professor somehow started talking about this movie and she criticized it for the first scene, with the mother who grieves when her child dies, saying it was cheap, a quick way to make people cry, that it wasn't real art.

I remember how close I was to laughing, for several reasons. First, because if she couldn't handle that scene, she definitely wouldn't be able to handle a show like Grey's Anatomy. Second, because the film is all about the human experience and the role the angels play in that, or, at least, in this conception of angels. Their role deals with the harder things, like the death of a child. However, the movie also gives hope that death is not forever. I'll admit, that first scene makes me cry too. I think it's a scene that hits the raw values of every human being. The human experience is not some static, emotionless journey and everyone is going to experience grief, horrible grief, at one point or another. And, thirdly, I almost started laughing because, in my opinion, and in the opinion of most liberal arts students, all movies are art. They are stories, interpretations, with an atmosphere, music, cinematography, and how could she say say otherwise when she was supposedly a Humanities professor?!!! Grrrr. 

My professor was kind of getting emotional as she was talking about it, almost sounded like she might start crying, for all the anger. If she had already experienced something like that scene, then I am very, very sorry. But if she hadn't...good grief (pun intended...yikes). It kind of influenced my opinion of her (isn't that horrible?!!!). She had an alright sense of humor, made the class interesting, but I honestly didn't like her. Embrace the bad with the good that comes in life, right? Acknowledge the beauty and wonder of human life, the depths of pain and happiness, the individual human story!!! AAAAAH. There's something absolutely amazing about our capacity for emotional pain and joy. You can't have one without the other in a lifetime.

Wow. Tangent, anyone? Give me a break. It's nearly 4am. Again. Argh.

Umm....here. Here's Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." Everyone's heard it, but it's a beautiful song and I haven't listened to it in a while.

And here's U2's "If God Will Send His Angels" that was also used on the soundtrack:

Sweet dreams.