La La Land: Justin Hurwitz Classification: Jazz Release: 2016 Some day I may get around to reviewing the movie, "La La Land". Spoiler alert, I love it. It's sad. It's sweet. It's bitter. It's jazz and slick and Hollywood perfect. Sure, sure. I'm a sucker, what can I say? My wife is a big fan of Ryan Gosling - I think most wives are. She always seems to have new Hollywood crushes, but Ryan Gosling is one that often comes up in her list of most attractive men. I know this list because she likes to ask me who I think is pretty in Hollywood. I don't think she really wants to hear my answer. I think she wants me to ask the question back. Since 2014 I have included Emma Stone in my list. This is partially because of Emma Stone, partly because I am forever behind in my Hollywood gossip. There is just too much content these days. People that don't have anything to say should just stop saying it. Hmm. That cuts a little too close. I've stopped including Emma Stone in my lists when Erin asks me the Hollywood question. This has nothing to do with Emma Stone, per se. It has everything to do with Erin's response to my inclusion of Emma Stone in my list. Erin said something to the effect that Emma Stone looks like her sister. There is a vague similarity there, but I wouldn't have noticed it without Erin's pointing it out in ways that made me realize that she had done her homework to prove her spurious point. It's made things weird between us. Not between Erin and I (nor between Erin's sister and I). Between Emma and I. There's this disconnect now that wasn't there before. It's me, Emma. Not you. See, that's weird isn't it? La La Land the movie used to be the perfect movie for Erin and I. Now? Well, let's just move on to the album. There is a stack of folders that I want to edit and put on the blog. Instead I'm sitting listening to La La Land for the fifth time in three days and writing about it. I should have classified this post as a review in the Musicals category. It would have fixed a broken link. So would some of the papers in the stack of folders an arm's reach away, for that matter. It would be dishonest to put La La Land in any other category than jazz. Sure, it's a safer jazz than some of the other albums I've been listening to. Here's looking at you King Tut. It's got that Hollywood slickness about it that something like Head Hunters doesn't have. Still, a duck is a duck whether its in the little pond near our apartment or in the lobby of the Peabody. "Are there any words", asked Erin on its second go round the turntable? It was then I knew that it couldn't go in the Musicals category. There are some words, in case you were wondering. Only on City of Stars, which might actually be one of my least favorite tracks on the whole album. Mia and Sebastian's Theme, which runs through both album and movie, has a beautiful piano refrain. I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason hearing the song over and over again I am reminded of Cloud Atlas and its recurring piano theme. Now, there's a film (or book) I wouldn't mind picking up again. This is why I can't catch up to the content that Hollywood keeps churning out. I get distracted too easily in deciding what to watch with the overabundance of choices. I wind up returning to the same thing over and over again. La La Land is that type of jazz record: a refuge, a safe return when the plethora of choices seem overwhelming. It is the ultimate tool of procrastination. The stack of folders that need to be edited can wait another day.
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