lula's lunar love

Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin'
We could dream this night away.

But there's a full moon risin'
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night.

Because I'm still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart.

But now it's gettin' late
And the moon is climbin' high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin' in your eye.

Because I'm still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

----- ***** -----
The lyrics above are of Neil Young's classic love song, "Harvest Moon". The album, of the same name, was released in 1992, just before his 47th birthday.
I love all of the aspects of that song - the lyrics, the melody, the sentiment, his voice mingling with the words.
It came, unbidden, to mind after seeing Manual Cinema's "Lula del Ray" tonight.
The Lucas Theatre was sparsely attended for this Savannah Music Festival event. No matter. The 220 (or so) patrons of the arts who had dared venture out to this unique pairing of puppets, shadow actors, and silent movie were well-rewarded!

That included me, of course! Plus, with my posting by the righthand stage curtain, I had plenty of dance floor prior to the show. Use that space I did, as the songs from Daddy's country and western albums from my youth played above me! Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", Patsy Cline's "She's Got You", Hank Williams' "Kaw-Liga" - and so many others during the hour before the show!
Hey, no one really expected me to just stand there, right?
(smile)

So, what was the story in this 1950's era coming of age tale?
A girl, most likely in her early teens, is living out in the desert with her mom. They share a mobile home which also serves as a deep-space listening post for SETI. Lula likes to sit on the massive sound-gathering disks, looking up at the star-strewn moonlit sky, dreaming of the magic of outer space.
Her daytime hours are spent trying to launch her model rockets into that sky. Alas, time after time again, her rockets fail. As a teen will do, she becomes disillusioned with her love of space... and becomes fully engaged in worship of the Baden Brothers! They're a country music duo she heard on the television one night. But their music was not the full motivation for her enrapture. Oh, no!
It was the song they were performing.
"Lord, Blow The Moon Out" captured her lack of thrall with all aspects of her current life. The song spoke of living on a hilltop with trees - not a flat desert with no foliage in sight. The song advocated for the sound of birdsong - not an absence of all birds and her mother's need for silence for her job. Moreover, the song's dreamy pacing was right in keeping with its plaintive message for the enormous moon to have its light extinguished, "please".
Then the word arrives that her idols will be appearing live! In a concert in the "big city"! And the advertising stated that the concert "will change your life"!
So she runs off to the "big city" with just the change from her piggy bank. That meant she could not afford a ticket to the concert... but, being an enterprising young girl who is not afraid of heights, she climbs to the roof and enters through the ductwork.
Oh, what a thrill to hear - and see through the grating! - the handsome rockabilly duo performing her favorite song!
It was all she had imagined it would be!
Then she ventured out into the halls, seeking to see them, to meet them, to tell them how much their music had meant to her. And she does find their dressing room. And they are both there. And she discovers, to her chagrin, that they are not at all as she had imagined. That's when security nabbed her and escorted her out of the building.
By that time, her mom had missed her and went to the city in search of her.
However, Lula had caught the bus back home. With her mom gone, Lula takes up the headphones at the listening post... and rediscovers her first love: deep space and that glorious moon casting its benevolent beams toward the Earth.
The end.
Well, there was a shot at the end of her growing up to become an astronaut. That was more of an epilogue, though, than an ending to her story.
Truly beautiful!

i thank You, God, for this blessing!