Keeping Score

I'm crazy about the movies. Old movies. Foreign films. Indie flicks. Even the occasional Hollywood blockbuster. Maybe it's the vicarious voyages I get to take in darkened cinemas - journies of the imagination requiring no passport, and at a fraction of the cost of the real deal.

One of the best things about my Philly neighborhood is that it's an easy walk to three movie theatres, where I've spent countless rainy afternoons traveling through time and across the globe courtesy of Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar and Jim Jarmusch. And since the inception of the Philadelphia Film Fest (once reserved solely for world cinema), I've waited excitedly for the release its annual line-up, and pored over it with all the enthusiasm of my childhood-self creating a Christmas wishlist for Santa from the old Montgomery Ward catalogue.

I am like the Go-Go's eponymous "Girl of 100 Lists " who proclaims:

Ghetto blasters, phony jewels
Cathedrals, castles, making up rules
Trashy novels and leather gloves
This is a list of things that I love

I have all sorts of lists of things that I love, and especially lists of my favorite movies. One thing that my top films have in common is that all have memorable scores or soundtracks. After all, what would Casablanca be without its Max Steiner score and the unforgettable "As Time Goes By?" And one of my favorite films of the past decade, the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou, has a sublime soundtrack of American roots music that tops another of my lists: "Must Have Music on a Desert Island." Nor can I separate Pulp Fiction from the music Quentin Tarantino chose to accompany each scene (every time I hear "Son of a Preacher Man," I see in my mind's eye Uma Thurman's Mia preparing for her date with Vincent Vega).

I like to imagine that every life also has a soundtrack. If you could burn yours onto a double cd right now, do you know what tunes it would include? I haven´t even begun to consider it truthfully, although I'm pretty sure Bruce Springsteen´s "Rosalita" would figure heavily in representing my college years.

I have, however, been thinking about a soundtrack for the journey I´ve been on for the past few months. It has happened rather naturally, without any real effort on my part. Certain songs on my iPod have just resonated with me at various times throughout my trip. Some have to do with being independent and self-sufficient. Others with Karma and gratitude.

A few pieces on the list have found me along the way: While changing trains at Chatalet in the Paris Metro, a group called Classique Metropolitain plays Vivaldi and Bach and I buy their cd; cowbells accompany me in Switzerland; Mozart is everywhere in Austria. For some reason I obsess about Joni Mitchell's recent re-recording of "Both Sides Now" (part of the soundtrack to "Love Actually") then by chance hear it playing in my hotel lobby in Copenhagen, so that I visit every music store in the city until I locate a copy. I discover reggae legend Eek-a-Mouse, who performs (in a Santa Pimp suit) at Marni's friend Julian's birthday party in Cologne.

Some of the songs on my virtual soundtrack have little or nothing to do with my geographical or interior journey. They're just songs I like to sing out loud - like "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction or Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds."

So along with photos taken in and around Bergen, Norway, here is a small sampling of music from the soundtrack to The Road Less Traveled:

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Life for Rent - Dido

I always thought that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world and live more simply
I have no idea what’s happened to that dream
Cause there’s really nothing left here to stop me

Last Go 'Round - Dave's True Story

…the wheel of life has done me to a turn
Seems I’ve no more karmic lessons left to learn
I’ve been everything from Pope to petty crook
Seems I’m several centuries older than I look
And when I go this time I’m finally off the hook
I know my words astound
But I swear I’m not unsound
It’s now or never darling
‘Cause this is my last go ‘round

No One Here But Me - Susan Werner

I read the ancient walls
Walked the winding streets
Followed the pretty words
Slept in tangled sheets
But there is no cure
Across the sea
No, there’s no one here but me

Galileo - Indigo Girls

I offer thanks to those before me
That’s all I’ve got to say
‘Cause maybe you squandered bucks in your lifetime
And now I have to pay
But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
to let the next life off the hook
She’ll say “Look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think I’ll write a book”

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all ...

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day

I´ve Loved These Days - Billy Joel

Now we take out time, so nonchalant
And spend out nights so bon-vivant
We dress our days in silken robes
The money comes, the money goes
We know its all a passing phase
We light our lamps for atmosphere
And hang our hopes on chandeliers...

So before we end and then begin
We’ll drink a toast to how it’s been
A few more hours to be complete
A few more nights on satin sheets
A few more times that I can say
That I’ve loved these days