The Swell Season

Did you see the movie Once? No? You should have.

I actually have a really sad story about Once. Pete and I used to write for a music magazine called playback:stl (I guess we still do but I haven't contributed in a long time). I would get many, many emails each work on the listserv, about local shows, CD/book releases, etc. Occasionally we would get emails about movie premieres (I say occasionally because come on. I live in St. Louis. Movie premieres don't usually occur here). This email was about a premiere for Once. Glen Hasard, Marketa Irglova (the two stars), and the director of the movie would all be present and would take questions after the movie was over. So we watched the trailer and the trailer REALLY didn't look that good. So all was forgotten.

A couple of months later I was hanging out with my friend Sam. He mentioned how much he, as a boy, LOVED it and that it was right up my alley. So we went and saw it, and Sam and his other friend Mike totally teared up and wouldn't admit it. The next time Pete was in town, we saw it. And Pete loved it. And I had forgotten about the free movie premiere with the TWO STARS and DIRECTOR...for awhile. And then I remembered and was really sad.

That's it.



The soundtrack from the movie is great. Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova just work together so beautifully. As a duo, they call themselves The Swell Season. And they are in the process of releasing another album. And if you go here, on NPR's site, you can listen to some of their new stuff! It sounds so good.



This picture above is from when Hasard and Irglova won the Oscar for Best Original Song from a Movie, or whatever that Oscar is called. It was so sweet - you could tell they were just in awe. But then Hasard talked the whole time and played them off stage, and Jon Stewart brought Irglova back out so she could actually get a word in of acceptance speech. It was annoying (that they played her off) but so sweet that Jon Stewart helped her out.

And, as good measure, here's their award-winning song, "Falling Slowly", set to snippets of film from Once. If you like the look of this, you'll love the movie. You should go rent it now.