{"id":8062,"date":"2011-03-30T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T15:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8062"},"modified":"2011-04-11T10:43:46","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T14:43:46","slug":"unreal-life-dialogue-midweek-music-emmylou-harris-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/unreal-life-dialogue-midweek-music-emmylou-harris-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Unreal-Life Dialogue: Midweek Music (Emmylou Harris) Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"[The scene: A Saturday evening in mid-June, 2011. A living room in suburban northwest Florida, USA. A man and a woman watch TV — something the man has chosen, because it is his birthday. A knock comes at the front door; The Pooch begins to bark madly, as usual, except she is also spinning: something she does only when someone she loves (or knows she will love) approaches the house.]<\/em><\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> I’ll get it.<\/p>\n

[She scoops up The Pooch and opens the front door. There on the porch stands a radiant silver beauty of a woman. The mystery woman smiles; it lights up the threshold and foyer like moonlight. When the mystery woman speaks, it is with a soft, sweet drawl.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Mystery Woman:<\/strong> Hey there Missus. I’m Emmylou. Mr. Simpson at home tonight?<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Why yes. Yes, he is. Would you like to come in?<\/p>\n

[Finally the man — who has heard nothing of the dialogue to this point — pauses the movie, a little annoyed that the rhythm of this great action-suspense-thriller heist flick has been interrupted.]<\/em><\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Is that the pizz— Holy shit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Hey there, John.<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> But you’re — you’re—<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Uh-huh. Just here to play something for you, if that’s all right.<\/p>\n

[She retrieves an acoustic guitar from the porch, comes in, sits down and makes herself comfortable, and begins to sing.]<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> [Picking self up from floor]<\/em> My God…<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Hmm. Can I get you anything, Emmylou? Water? Glass of wine? Coffee?<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> That’d be sweet of you, ma’am. Just water for now. [Turning to the man.]<\/em> Like to hear somethin’ else?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Er, uh, well… [nervous laugh]<\/em> That was<\/em> a bit somber, y’know? Maybe something more—<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> [not-at-all-nervous laugh]<\/em> More up-tempo? More birthdayish<\/em>?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Oh, I don’t want—<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> That’s all right, not a problem. Thank you, Miz Simpson.<\/p>\n

[Mystery Woman takes offered glass of water, drinks deeply. He is hypnotized by the way Mystery Woman swallows. He swallows a little, himself.]<\/em><\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Let me see… OK, hit it, boys.<\/p>\n

[A band magically appears behind her.]<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> There y’go. [She laughs softly.]<\/em> Just like candles: one Cadillac for each decade. Hope y’all liked it.<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> I— I—<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Anything else you’d like to hear right now?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Well, I know there’s no way for you to— I mean, that little thing you did with Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch for O Brother, Where<\/em>—<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> You might be surprised what I can do.<\/p>\n

[She snaps her fingers. The band disappears, and is replaced by a suddenly coalescing Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch.]<\/em><\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Ready, girls? <\/em><\/p>\n

[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 1:57 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:didntleavenobodybutthebaby_harriiskrausswelch.mp3|titles=’Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby’|artists=Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch]<\/div>\n

[Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch ripple, turn translucent, and return to the ether.]<\/em><\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> I— I’m speechless.<\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Thank you. I’m so glad. I’m such a fan of your blog, you just don’t know. Especially that entry you posted back at the end of March. [Mystery Woman smiles. He falls to floor again.]<\/em><\/p>\n

[Mystery Woman stands, leans guitar against the sideboard. Mystery Woman opens her arms, and He steps into them.]<\/em><\/p>\n

MW:<\/strong> Y’all have a nice night, now.<\/p>\n

[Mystery Woman leaves. He turns to She, who is impaling Him with a glare.]<\/em><\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> You want to explain what just happened, “Mr. Simpson”?<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Well, back in March, I wrote a post, sorta magic realis— No, forget it. I’m not sure I understand it myself.<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> [nods, apparently accepting this]<\/em> I will say, that’s one beautiful woman.<\/p>\n

He:<\/strong> Isn’t she, though? Isn’t she just? Have you ever<\/em> seen hair like that? And that smile. [Shakes head.]<\/em> And didn’t she look great in jeans? And the boots—<\/p>\n

She:<\/strong> Okay, okay, enough of that. Back to the movie.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Hat tip to Jules<\/a> for the NPR clip. Thank you again!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[The scene: A Saturday evening in mid-June, 2011. A living room in suburban northwest Florida, USA. A man and a woman watch TV — something the man has chosen, because it is his birthday. A knock comes at the front door; The Pooch begins to bark madly, as usual, except she is also spinning: something […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,1235,2252,426,74,37],"tags":[2168,2285,2286,2287,2288,2289,2290],"class_list":{"0":"post-8062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-themissus","7":"category-real-life-dialogue-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-midweek-music-break","9":"category-celebrities","10":"category-music","11":"category-onlineworld","12":"tag-npr","13":"tag-emmylou-harris","14":"tag-gillian-welch","15":"tag-alison-krauss","16":"tag-sxsw","17":"tag-fantasies","18":"tag-o-brother-where-art-thou","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-262","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8063,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8062\/revisions\/8063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}