firefly, I love folk music of any kind as it reflects the culture of a people. Thanks for that wonderful song, and the "clicks" remind me of the movie The Gods Must be Crazy. The main role was done by a bushman of the Kalahari Desert and those sounds were fascinating.
Well, edgar. Anything the singing ranger sings is always great. Thanks, Texas.
I read Doctorow's Ragtime and I barely recall the movie. I do believe, however, that it was a poor adaptation of his book.
WA2K's Book Review for today.
Readers expecting intricate plots will not be disappointed; there are several plots going on simultaneously, which are not resolved until almost the conclusion of the novel. The three major plots involving the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant family, the Jewish immigrant family and the African-American family serve as occasions for social commentary, historical reinterpretation and dramatic foreshadowing. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined families and other fictional characters--namely one Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.
Characters may be realized anywhere from the actual historical figures of J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman and Booker T. Washington, to representational archetypes such as Father, Mother and Little Girl. The wise reader will learn to embrace them all in the world that Doctorow has recreated and enjoy Ragtime for the unique literary experience it is.
Since Harry Houdini was a big part of the book, let's hear one about him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLWhydtd5wI&feature=related
Jennifer sang that theme during the closing credits of the movie.
Miss you.
