We watch a lot of documentaries in this house (I've been known to say "It's the one genre I am always in the mood for"). It seems like there are new ones popping up every day in the Netflix "Watch-instantly" section, so we both peruse it a lot. There are lots of bad/underwhelming/dud ones on there, but some good ones to.
Like Off the Charts, a short (1 hour) film about the zany and fascinating song-poem business. This odd business model involves a songwriter/poet, who sends their poem to a "music studio" (some more dubious that others), along with a check to finance the creation of their own personal professional recording of their poem set to music.
It's one of the best short documentaries we've seen - and though we are mere dabblers in outsider music fandom (shout out to our beloved BJ Snowden) we can't stop talking about the sweet, sincere, and strange things we saw and heard. I think my favorite was a love ballad to Annie Oakley.
There is also a really good This American Life episode from way back about the song-poem phenomenon, focusing on the son of one of the industry's most revered titans. Anyway, the film is free to watch with a Netflix account, and can be rustled up on DVD. The T.A.L. episode is free to listen to as well.
I know it's a bit random, but I wanted to share the goodness!
Happy Thursday to you!
