A few days before departing for my cross-country drive and Washington, D.C., adventure, I took part in a newsroom discussion regarding one of my favorite time designators: Midnight.
The discussion centered around whether:
– Midnight was 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. (it is a.m.; noon, which is also pretty cool, is 12 p.m.);
– Whether something that happened just after midnight should be described as happening “late Tuesday night” 0r “early Wednesday morning” (it is, of course, the latter).
Even though I’m not nearly the night owl I was as a college student, swing-shift parking lot attendant, or sportswriter, I still tend to be up after midnight a couple times a week — usually because of work or because I had a ballgame that night.
And while a momentous night for me now consists of having a couple beers and watching a rerun of “Man vs. Wild,” I still enjoy the adventurous, exciting thoughts that “midnight” bring to mind — like thinking back on how I was sitting in a tavern with a bunch of friends at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 16, 1984, my 21st birthday.
Anyway, all of that is just a runup to this week’s Top 7: Best midnight references. Here we go:
1) The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, a nod both to Longfellow and an early American hero.
2) “Midnight Cowboy,” a powerful and creepy 1969 drama about a male prostitute (Jon Voight) and his sickly friend (Dustin Hoffman) struggling to survive in New York. Theme song: “Everybody’s Talkin’ At Me.”
3) “After Midnight,” by Eric Clapton.
4) “Midnight Express,” an unsettling 1978 film about a guy thrown into a Turkish prison for drug smuggling.
5) “Midnight Rendezvous,” by the Babys.
6) “Captain Midnight,” a 1930s and 1940s radio serial.
7) “Living After Midnight,” by Judas Priest.
3 comments
Laure_A says:
Sep 10, 2009
I love "Midnight Rendezvous". Here are a few more "midnight" songs.
-"Walking After Midnight" and "Midnight on the Bay", Neil Young
-"Midnight Rider", Allman Bros.
-"Midnight Train to Georgia", Gladys Knight and the Pips
-"The Midnight Special", CCR
meremark says:
Sep 10, 2009
land of the midnight sun
First hearing it stirred in me a mixture of romance and exile. Or something. Plus it's a riddle or a mystery. Which seems to remain unanswered even after you 'solve' it. The phrase was coined describing Alaska or the Arctic pole or Eskimos, Inuits, or maybe the aurora borealis or all of these, I think. And I thought that cheated the south pole since Antarctica is also a land with a midnight sun.
'Round Midnight
If you've ever sought something of a rain-washed city street in the night — ideally the City of Light, Paris — then you've felt this music in your ear and under your steps. But see HERE .
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
I haven't read the book nor seen the movie. But I remember excited promotion of 'it all' variously gripped and enthralled the 'bestseller' arts and literary concerns, sort of claiming to redeem piedmont savanna culture from dissolute backwater status. I had to look it up. And I found a thrill and a chill to discover that the title reference 'garden' means a cemetery in voodoo-speak, which designates 'midnight' as that slightest balance between good magic and evil magic. Something in that imagery demarcates a line (not a point) in the very depths of the human soul in each of us, whether conscience or self-passion accordingly.
jennifermoody says:
Sep 10, 2009
"Midnight at the Oasis," which a memorable mondegreen I once read made into, "Midnight After You're Wasted."