Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy didn’t write this little number, nor did the Avalon Boys and, for that matter, nor did anyone else associated with the film. More about that history in a moment. For now, though, just sit back, click the Play button, and take pleasure in the guileless charm of this three-minute segment of one of their greatest films, 1937’s Way Out West.

(The setup for this scene: the boys have just arrived, via stagecoach, in an old Wild West town. They’re there with a purpose; before pursuing it, though, they turn to head into the saloon. And that’s where they encounter the Avalon Boys Quartet, arrayed on the wooden porch as though to formally welcome L&H to town.)

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[Video: time-lapse film of an entire year in a wooded area, over “One Fine Day,” by David Byrne and Brian Eno (lyrics in the note at the end of this post)]

From whiskey river:

The Storm

Now through the white orchard my little dog
romps, breaking the new snow
with wild feet.
Running here running there, excited,
hardly able to stop, he leaps, he spins
until the white snow is written upon
in large, exuberant letters,
a long sentence, expressing
the pleasures of the body in this world.

Oh, I could not have said it better
myself.

(Mary Oliver [source])

…and:

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. Life is now, every moment, no matter if the world be full of death. Death triumphs only in the service of life.

(Henry Miller [source])
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