Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Movies & Television, New Orleans, Questions (and sometimes answers), Versions on September 1, 2007 | No Comments »
In response to some recent-ish posts here about “SJI” and the movies, I got a nice note from reader Maria (writing in from South America, proving once again the global appeal of “SJI”), who pointed out two other films that the song has popped in and that I haven’t mentioned. One is Henry and June. [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Movies & Television, MySpace/YouTube/Etc., Non-musical context, Versions on August 8, 2007 | No Comments »
Speaking of “SJI” in the movies, here’s another example — rather different from the previously mentioned Taste of Cherry.
I forget how I got wind that the tune appears in the 2001 anime film Metropolis; it may be that I became aware of the sound track first, and then backed into it from there.
In any case, [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Movies & Television on July 23, 2007 | No Comments »
A year or two ago I checked out the 1999 film A Taste of Cherry, by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, on a tip from a friend. As this recent article about Kiarostami in The Berkeley Daily Planet, by Justin DeFreitas, summarizes, it is:
A slow, meditative film about a man, Mr. Badii, trolling through the [...]
[Or: The Point of this Site]
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a third version.
And now, this site: A place to collect some of the links, leads, thoughts, and suggestions relating to the song that readers (from Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S.) have sent me. This may lead to a fourth and significantly expanded version of the essay, some day. Also on this site: Plenty of tangents.
Never heard "St. James Infirmary"? Start here.
The most recent version of my "St. James Infirmary" essay is now a few years old. But it's still a fairly decent overview of what I know about the song, and why I'm interested in it. You can read it either in the book Letters from New Orleans (see below), or in the archives of The Gambit, the New Orleans weekly that published the piece as a book excerpt when LfNO came out.
This site is a partial spinoff of the book Letters from New Orleans, published by the unstoppable Garrett County Press. My interest in "St. James Infirmary" is the subject of one essay in the book. All author proceeds from the book still go to post-Katrina relief efforts, so I think it's okay for me to say: You ought to buy it.
