Hats, Men, Chill

On this chilly October morning, a bit of nonsense. That damn hippie Atrios posted a YouTube video of the 80s tune "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. I made the mistake of watching, and now can't get that tune out of my head!

The group's (or was it just the one guy?) name circled my brain for a bit last night, eventually landing on a scene from "The Big Chill." Tom Berenger, enters the living room late at night to find William Hurt sitting on the couch watching an old movie on late-night television:

Berenger: What's this?
Hurt: I'm not sure.
Berenger: What's it about?
Hurt: I don't know.
Berenger: Who's that?
Hurt: I think the guy in the hat did something terrible.
[shot of TV shows a man being thrown through the glass window of a door. All characters are wearing hats]

Why I chuckle every time I think of that scene, I don't know.

Give a Listen

So I was watching this movie this evening for the umpteenth time (love the kids who portray Nathan, and Kurt Russell's subtle facial expressions) and became intrigued by the music used during scenes of "Todd's" education on aspects of life other than soldiering.

The song is entitled "Night Ride Across The Caucasus" and was written and performed by Loreena McKennitt. It may be found on her album "The Book of Secrets."

Checking the trivia section on Internet Movie Database led to the discovery of inside jokes contained within the movie, including references to "Blade Runner", also written by David Webb Peoples, and many other Kurt Russell films.

But my favorite is that "Todd" is trained in the use of the "Illudium PU36 ES,M." For those familiar with Bugs Bunny cartoons, that would be the Illudium PU36 Explosive Space Modulator, the weapon Marvin the Martian is always threatening to use on Earth.

Class dismissed.