James Earl Jones reads Walt Whitman
January 18, 2017 8:43 AM   Subscribe

 
Oh you son of a..... I started reading this headline and was like.....fuck you 2017....

*wipes sweat off of brow*
posted by Fizz at 9:22 AM on January 18, 2017 [11 favorites]


Damn it! Had an early appointment and must nap before work, and then I see this?

Curses!

(I use part of this as a mantra for myself to deal with my depressive self-worth issues and it really helps.)
posted by Samizdata at 9:23 AM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


Needs just like a *little* bit of reverb...
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 9:23 AM on January 18, 2017


Man I wish there was a checkbox for "Add Darth Vader breathing".
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 9:42 AM on January 18, 2017




I saw James Earl Jones give a dramatic poetry reading in the early '70s well before he was the voice of Vader. First and only time I've heard an entire auditorium release its collective held breath in an audible whoosh before breaking into thunderous applause!
posted by Standeck at 10:56 AM on January 18, 2017 [2 favorites]


James Earl Jones reading Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain on Reading Rainbow. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
posted by Fizz at 11:40 AM on January 18, 2017


...an entire auditorium release its collective held breath in an audible whoosh before breaking into thunderous applause!

I heard Morgan Freeman at the Guthrie in 1987 and remember his voice perfectly; he, too, filled the theater -- though acting opposite Clarence Fountain was a good match-up. There are several Youtube videos showing Freeman in that role (the Messenger in "The Gospel at Colonus") and his voice is amazing.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:52 AM on January 18, 2017


For some reason I just got the idea that I'd like to see JEJ and Morgan Freeman in a scene in which they glower at each other and trade off faking orgasms with no emotion but intense gravitas.

Oh.

Oh.

OH.
posted by gusandrews at 5:16 PM on January 18, 2017 [2 favorites]


perhaps if I speak these dreams aloud the internet will make them real for me
posted by gusandrews at 5:18 PM on January 18, 2017


I'm sorry I've just cheapened this whole thing haven't I
posted by gusandrews at 5:19 PM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


James Earl Jones (Amazon)
A Tony Award-winning actor describes his parental abandonment as an infant, the severe stutter that caused him to retreat into silence for four years, his college years, and his theatrical successes.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 5:50 PM on January 18, 2017


Posts like this are why I treasure MetaFilter.

This is beautiful--gave me chills. Thanks for sharing it.
posted by josephtate at 8:05 PM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


Well, know what I'm getting high and masturbating to tonight.

@gusandrews: nah, you're fine.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:43 PM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh, boy! Thanks for this!
posted by old_growler at 8:55 PM on January 18, 2017


As an aside, Nate DiMeo - podcaster of The Memory Palace - did a complete reading of Song of Myself just before the US election as a special feature. (Sadly, it's not available from the site; you'll have to subscribe to the podcast to download it). I'd never heard a complete reading of the poem - just lines and extracts - so I decided to play it while walking and biking.

It blew my head off. Ecstasy in every line. An existential outpouring of humanity.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:25 PM on January 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


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