Mostly Live

I don't watch very many movies, but when I come across one like this it makes me wonder why I don't, and how many more jewels are out there that I haven't discovered yet. This one is an unassuming little documentary, originally produced for British TV and receiving only a limited U.S. theatrical run before its DVD release in the fall of 2008. Titled "Young@Heart", it follows a chorus of the same name, formed in 1982 in Northampton, Massachusetts.

What's different about Young@Heart is that its 20-odd singers range between 73 and 93 years of age (at the time of the film). But that's not the only twist -- instead of singing the kind of stuff they grew up with, like Sinatra, Bing Crosby, or Perry Como, their director Bob Cilmi has assembled a repertoire that includes contemporary and classic rock and pop tunes made famous by artists ranging from The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, and James Brown, to Coldplay, Outkast, and Sinead O'Connor.

It would have been tempting to make this a warm and fuzzy "feel-good" movie from beginning to end, but the film's director Stephen Walker instead chose a much more substantial approach, giving equal time to the happy moments -- the triumph of a fine performance, the sharing of a good age-related joke -- and the not-so-happy -- the frustration of trying to learn a difficult song, the tragic reminders of how precarious the health of the elderly can be.

Movies almost never make me cry, but this one did, more than once. I cried tears of joy at the outpouring of appreciation, complete with handshakes and hugs, that the chorus received from an audience of inmates after a performance at an area prison, having heard just minutes before showtime about the sudden death of their fellow singer, Bob Salvini. And I cried tears of sadness when Fred Knittle (the irrepressibly witty and charming bass of the group) took the stage during a concert highlighted at the film's finale to sing a solo rendition of Coldplay's "Fix You", which was to have been a duet with Salvini but was instead dedicated to him.

The Young@Heart chorus members might not always sing on key, or even in time with the music, so you'd think that the movie's soundtrack album wouldn't be enjoyable. But the exuberant joy, the playful fun, and the tender poignancy they seem to effortlessly bring to every song make any of the shortcomings they may have in rhythm and melody totally beside the point. I can't help but smile when I hear Dora and Stan belt out their best James Brown cries in "I Feel Good", and I feel along with them the payoff of their aggravating rehearsals when they finally nail the lyrics to The Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can" ... but on the other hand, I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to Coldplay's "Fix You" again without feeling a lump in my throat.

One of the greatest things about the end of the movie, and the live in-concert tracks on the soundtrack album, is the age range of the audience in attendance ... there were people ranging in age from 6 to 90, and they all had fun. I had a lot of fun, too, especially listening to the younger members of the audience erupting in approval and recognition when Young@Heart started in on their adventurous rendition of "Hey Ya". All in all, the more you like music, the more you need to see this movie ... and the more likely you'll end up buying the soundtrack, too. (I myself had to spring for the 2-disc deluxe import edition, which was well worth it!)

The Next Best Thing

I was wondering what to write about next in this blog (what with "American Idol" being over), when there it was, sitting in the used rack in the little independent music store I frequent, as if it were waiting for me to find it ... a particular type of digital disc that's rarely seen and virtually unknown in the U.S. and Europe: the Video CD, or VCD. What exactly is a Video CD, you ask? The easiest way to describe it is as a simplified DVD, except that it's written on conventional CD media (as its name implies).

Popular mostly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island countries for over a decade (although I imagine by now that DVD has begun to push them aside in popularity), Video CDs have some advantages, and some disadvantages, compared to DVDs. One nice thing about them is that they're not subject to region encoding, which means they can be viewed with any VCD-capable player anywhere in the world -- including most (but not all) American-marketed DVD players ... and with the right software, your computer, even if the only optical drive you have is a CD. Also -- though I definitely don't endorse illegal copying of discs -- they almost never have the copy-protection defenses that DVDs have.

However, as you can imagine, there's a downside to putting movies on the less-capacitous media of CDs. The picture clarity isn't a whole lot better than VHS (a high-quality VHS that would never degrade, but VHS nonetheless), and there's no 5.1 surround sound -- two-channel stereo is as good as you'll get. And you might as well forget about alternate language or commentary tracks, or optional subtitles; if you get a VCD that has subtitles, they're on the screen whether you want them or not, in whatever language they were written in. And then there's the matter of run time: a Video CD can hold about 80 minutes of content at best, so basically any theatrical film will be split over two or more discs.

But when we're talking the the shorter-length content, like concert films or music video collections, where none of those extra bells and whistles really matter, Video CDs fit the bill nicely. Indeed, if you like import pop like I do, VCD may prove to be your only option in certain cases -- a DVD may be unwatchable due to foreign region encoding, and with a little luck, the artist is popular enough in the right country that they've warranted a VCD release. Oh, and if you're techno-savvy enough, you can even copy out any of the disc's "chapters" and use them with other applications, since each chapter is in its own individual file on the disc, essentially in MPEG-1 format ... none of that shady DVD stripping-and-ripping software needed! (Again, I don't endorse the practice ... I'm just sayin'.)

I've accumulated a few Video CDs over the years: a companion volume to Five's "Greatest Hits" (even with a matching cover) that includes all their music videos ... a concert film by The Moffatts during their "Chapter I" days ... an A1 disc featuring interviews with the boyband as well as a handful of their videos ... and my newest addition, a 1998 assemblage of Duran Duran's music videos, released in conjunction with their "Greatest" hits compilation. Oh, and I can't forget the disc of videos that piggy-backs Gil's "Best of" audio CD ... and there are probably one or two that accompany various-artist compilations I have, too.

Sure, Video CDs aren't as pretty to watch or as graceful to navigate as DVDs (heck, some of them don't even have a menu to speak of), but their novelty makes them fun to experience, and their scarcity can make them enjoyable to collect. Not to mention, since they're housed in ordinary CD jewel cases, they fit nicely in amongst your CD collection. Go ahead, search eBay for "vcd" (or visit retail sites VCDCD.com and VCDGallery.com, though please note I haven't shopped at either of these sites so I can't personally vouch for their service -- caveat emptor) and see what you might find ... but check the compatibility of your DVD player or computer first to make sure you'll be able to watch what you buy!