Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Alouette, gentille Alouette


Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette, je te plumerai
Je te plumerai la tête
(Je te plumerai la tête)
Et la tête
(Et la tête)
Alouette
(Alouette)
O-o-o-oh

The Target commercial is transcendent. As soon as the hot air balloon hits the ground, the bright happy people jump out and change the world around them. What is better than that. It reminds me of the French film, Window to Paris. In it, characters discover a portal in their communal apartment in Moscow that transports them to Paris. The sad music teacher who has recently moved in, brings his children with him, and they dance and sing in the same semi-spastic way as the dancers in the commercial do through the cobbled streets of the City of Light. Their lives are dull and cramped living in the former communist state, and when on the streets of Paris, voila, transcendence. Of course the newly capitalist, curmudgeon'd couple who control the apartment also find the window, transport to France, and dismantle a car to bring back through. Does Target sell cars, too?!

The ad also reminds me of Yeats' poems, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, which addresses transcendence. He (Yeats) 'will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree ... There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.' The balloon has landed, the window found, and all is well. Color and rhyme pull him, and us, out of the drudgery of normal day-to-day life, and spiffen us up. We're popping with what's possible. It's been turned on its head.

Brilliant. This version of the song is so catchy ... I wonder if I can buy it at ITunes?! I love it! It immediately brightens my day, and sticks to my heart.

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