The Blues Brothers film (dir. John Landis, 1980) its being screened tomorrow night (Friday, 8 pm) on New Haven Green. The outdoor showing was rescheduled following the egregious rains of a few weeks back.
It actually would have been nice to see blues brothers in the rain. That film drips worth lot of things– sweat, beer, holy water, Midwestern lakes, smashed beer bottles…
I’ve been privileged to see blues brothers through many prisms. I remember viewing the original Saturday night live routines while in High school, and how this was one of the hyperphysicalized belushi bits I could really get behind. (never really dug the samurai.) the first blues brothers album came out while I was the music director of the high school radio station, and the buttons and stickers which Atlantic records aren’t along made me the envy of, well I don’t really know who. When my friend Hugh Mackay urged me to join him as a camp counselor at agassiz village in rural Maine, we worked up a Blues Brothers duet (me on harmonica. Hugh on vocals and somersaults; that was it) that brought the house down one dinnertime. In the 1990s, I re-experienced the Blues Brothers through the eyes of the besotted leaders of the local ska band revival. Now I’m keen to introduce it to my daughters, who already have some knowledge of vintage soul/R&B, and who don’t mind car crashes.
Addendum: The screening never happened that Friday. No screening at all. The event was a raindate for a cancelled attempt a few weeks earlier, but was listed in at least one online calendar, plus a friend had called City Hall and been told it was on. Very Blues Brother-ish to evade a show like that. I rented the DVD a few days later and my daughter Mabel, initially skeptical, quickly became a convert.