Anywhere I Lay My Head

An Interurban Musical Tour

The beautiful actress of Danish origin, Scarlett Johansson makes another striking move and sings Tom Waits songs accompanied by David Bowie in back vocals… The album, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’, was released on May 20.

This fame is something like a jelly, I guess. Once you are involved in it, you never get better of it. The singers become actresses, football players become singers; beautiful models become both singers and actresses. Some gums up the work, depressing us and herself/himself, while some become one spoon of a delicious dessert that is always to be remembered.
Albeit wealthy by birth, Paris Hilton, who is tempted by everything she sees or hears with a foolish arriviste is one of the most suitable and popular examples of gumming up the work. However, there are celebrities that can make anything they touch of gold even though their number is less then a few.
Well, how about Scarlett Johansson, one of the recent beauties of the silver screen, who has got a baby face with green eyes? This was the question on the minds when the successful actress, who hinted to the press two years ago that she would make record, finally released it.

Zombies out of Their Vaults
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is an actual cover album. In this album, the Danish-origin actress sings 10 songs by Tom Waits, the living legend of Indie music, and an original composition.
Tom Waits has got an inimitable and legendary voice, granted by very few artists on the planet. His songs are sometimes like a rite and sometimes like a zombie attack coming from their vaults. Sometimes like a thunder, sometimes like a wildly babbling river; it sometimes gives peace like the affectionate arms of a father. In short, Johansson is swimming in dark waters for a debut album.
Rather than the solo album of Scarlett Johansson, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is more a project realized by Dave Sitek, the album producer. The songs are relatively colder than the originals, and sometimes even harsher, as they are transmitted to the audience from a further distance. And the beautiful actress comes round like a revue artist rather than a signer. She jumps from one role to another throughout the album. In a child dreaming childish dreams and out a coquette dame who has been through the mill...

Reflections of the Train Window
The album starts with an instrumental song called “Fawn”, borrowed from Tom Waits’s 2002 album “Alice”. The piano that occasionally accompanies a lyrical violin in the original version is replaced by an organ and a polyphonic, complex, and disordered comment including battery, guitar, and plenty of instruments in the cover version. ‘Town with no cheer’ coming after “Fawn” starts with all of the instruments heard throughout the album at the same time just like a sound check. Evidently, this sound check is a prelude needed to put the album artists on airs.
We are inside a train pulled by a locomotive, heading from Melbourne to Adelaide, the capital of Australia. While wandering the desert accompanied by the misty voice of Scarlett, we are passing through a ghost town once the trains used to have a break, hosting the passengers in its canteen. But the new trains with buffet cars do not stop here anymore. The sorrow, a reminiscent of the Victorian Era, and wronged by the modern age, is making our heath bleed. Sipping from our ice bourbon, we are listening to the next song.
‘Falling Down’ attracts attention as one of its heroines is called Scarlett. And of course, with the surprising contribution of another music legend – David Bowie accompanies Johannson in ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Fannin’ Street’.

An Interurban Tour
One of the songs offending the eye in the album is ‘Green Grass’, selected from Waits’s album called ‘Real Gone’ which was produced in 2004. The song, wrapped in a gay structure thanks to the percussions, is replaced by a deep blue again while moving along slowly.
As for ‘I wish I was in New Orleans’, which was borrowed from ‘Small Change’ album in 1976, is like a lullaby. As if we are swaddled in a bed and watching the toys rounding above us and listening to the melody coming out of it. Scarlett’s voice falls into a dreamy air just like a small child living in such a moony dream...
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ may not consist of the best songs of Tom Waits but it manages to perpetuate Waits’s spirit in covers. During this tour, which lasts for 45 minutes and includes 11 songs, we sometimes happen to find ourselves in a small room, sometimes in a cemetery, sometimes in the urban streets, sometimes in the middle of a green field. We are having breaks in Melbourne, Adolaide, St. Petersburg, London, Houston throughout this interurban tour.
Although it did not get a bare pass from prestigious magazines such as Rolling Stone and Uncut, you are holding an album in your hands, which was met with honor by so many critics. Leaning on Tom Waits spectacularly and without retreating from her actual profession, that is acting, there is a beautiful actress before us, who becomes a narrator. It is unknown whether the same actress will turn out to be a real singer, but it is a real fact that she proves her acting talents this time before the microphone.

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The Other Boleyn Girl

Passion, Power, Revenge and Blood

‘Other Boleyn Girl’ takes the crossroads of Britain history as background and depicts the tragedy of a family trying to get involved in the court of Henry VIII. As the male members of the Boleyn family are stimulated by a greed for power, the Boleyn women are propelled towards notoriety and damnation.

“You think you know the story but you only know the end. To get to the heart of the story, you have to go to the beginning.”

The popular TV series of last season, ‘The Tudors’ started with these lines. Indeed, in order to better read today’s Britain, one should go back and understand the reign of Henry VIII, which holds a special place in the history of Britain.
Tudor Dynasty stayed in power from 1485 to 1603. They came to power with the glorified victory of Henry VII over Richard III, which put an end to the War of Roses. The son of Henry VII – later to be crowned as Henry VIII, married his elder brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, aunt to the King of Spain.
Perhaps the biggest ambition of Henry in life was to have an heir to his throne, who will continue his blood and take over his kingdom. Unluckily, Catherine could give Henry only one child – a daughter, who is to be remembered in history as the Bloody Mary. Many other babies of Catherine and Henry arrived stillborn. Henry, at this point, would sleep with other women hoping to produce an heir. In the larger picture, we had a Europe in the 1500s tainted by wars between Portugal, Spain, and France.
Justin Chadwick’s first feature-length film, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, takes this picture as background and focuses on the ambivalent relationship between two sisters - Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson). The film’s narration mainly grounds of Anne’s perspective, as the title suggests, but it fails to position itself accurately, and therefore cannot establish a balance between what is told and untold.
The story evolves around the plans to get Anne into the King’s bed – a relationship which would get Thomas Boleyn (the father), and Thomas Howard (the uncle) a place in the court and some authority.
Although Anne is initially given the task to charm the King during his visit to their estate, she unexpectedly fails to attract the King’s attention. Moreover, she causes an accident during a hunting ride, as a result of which the King returns home wounded. To everyone’s surprise, the King is enchanted by Mary, the younger sister, who is sent to the King’s room to take care of him. The dilemma is that Mary is a newly-wed. However, her fresh marriage could hardly be an obstacle on the way to the court, now open wide for her father, uncle, and husband. From now on the sisters’ relationship will get tainted by the rivalry for the court, and above all, for King.
There is a huge amount of literature – novels, plays, films, etc. – inspired from this period of Britain’s history marked by love, revenge, passion, and blood. Some of them depicted Henry VIII as a womaniser, some as a pitiful creature lacking self-confidence; some as a reputation-driven King afraid of being overshadowed by the accomplishments of his father... ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, apparently focuses more on the tragedy of the Boleyn family rather than Henry himself.
‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, features a rich number of characters, immensely varied, as they are driven by various interests. Mistress Boleyn, the mother, for instance, fails – or not even tries(?) – to restrain her husband’s greed for power. Thomas Boleyn, the father, on the other hand, forces his daughters to adultery for the sake of power. The uncle is a corrupt man enough to “use” anyone to gain his position in the court back. Anne and Mary’s brother is happy-go-lucky for his popularity, which is a result of his sisters’ adultery. And the Boleyn sisters – Mary, and Anne. The former is a young girl who is taken away from her husband’s arms and thrust to King’s bed only later to fall in love with him desparately. The latter “the other” Boleyn girl, namely Anne Boleyn, is not discouraged by her sister’s pregnancy and deep love for the King in her merciless fight to “get” him to her bed....
If you do not know already how the story ends, here it is: Henry divorces Catherine of Aragon to carve the way to Anne Boleyn’s bed. However, a devoted Catholic, Catherine does not collaborate for a divorce; instead, she tries every way to prevent this from taking place. Not surprisingly the Pope does not approve the divorce. But this hardly puts an end to Henry’s strife. Dazzling everyone, Henry goes as far as to break up from the Catholic Church and establishes the Church of England, which favours the newly rising protestant values over the Catholic ones. This rupture changes the path Britain meant to take, and a new era begins. The war is not yet over, though. Catherine’s daughter Mary tries to restore Catholicism by massacring thousands – hence, Bloody Mary. However, the golden age of Britain comes with Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elisabeth, who is crowned as Elisabeth I, who restores Anglicanism, and triggers the unimpeded rise of England as an independent kingdom.
The film is powerful with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, two talented and beautiful actresses. Although the film is a fest to the eyes with costumes and art direction, it fails to entertain the audiance with a quality plot. Yet if you find this period of British history appealing, or if you are curious about what might have come out of the duo – Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson –, we recommend you to watch ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.

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