Hi Skeleton Crew,
Happy last day a’ trivias before my summer vacay! I’ll see youse guys again in July!!
Answers to Last Time
Anton Chekhov wrote a play called The Seagull; A Flock of Seagulls sang “Space Age Love Song”; ’n’ Barbara Hershey was known as Barbara Seagull for a li’l while there.
Anton Chekhov wrote a play called The Bear; Grizzly Bear sang “Two Weeks”; ’n’ those football coaches I asked ’bout were Bear Bryant ’n’ George “Papa Bear” Halas.
Today’s Questions
Question 1
When I was writin’ yesterday’s Q1 I almost made a reference to that Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. After all, it’s prob’ly one a’ the most famous pieces a’ seagull media out there! (Top 3, at least.) But nah, it didn’t fit so clean into the question, so I just sidelined it to talk about later.
Well, today’s later!
Didja know they made Jonathan Livingston Seagull into a movie? It’s true! I guess they took footage a’ real-life seagulls ’n’ then, like, overlaid human dialogue ’n’ edited it together to have like a plot ’n’ everything.
Not gonna lie, it, uh ... doesn’t sound like a great idea??
I can’t admit to ever seein’ the movie myself, but in point a’ fact it DOES sounds like it was a real turkey. (Mr. Roger Ebert hated it so much that he even walked out!) Another fun bit a’ trivia is that it’s one a’ those rare movies where the soundtrack did better than the movie itself ... although even THAT was kinda a screwup, because the guy who did the soundtrack actually ended up suin’ the studio for cuttin’ too much a’ his music from the film! Oof-da!!
Anyways, who was that singer-songwriter who did the soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which hit #2 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart?
Kinda incredibly, that was his best-charting album till 2008, when his album Home Before Dark hit #1. I’m also a li’l sorry to say that this guy’s never managed to have an album clock over 10,000,000 sales in the US. The closest he ever came was with a different soundtrack—for the 1980 remake a’ The Jazz Singer—but even that only (“only”) ever went quintuple platinum.
Question 2
Jonathan Livingston Seagull was directed by Hall Bartlett, who has the odd distinction a’ havin’ directed not just one but TWO movies that were arguably more successful in the musical sphere than the cinematic one. I say this ’cause Mr. Bartlett’s first-ever directorial effort was what 1955 prison film that’d become fated to be best remembered for its titular melody? (Although most folks nowadays probably associate this song with a completely DIFFERENT movie, a supernatural romance that came out in 1990.)
OK then
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee