u/Sellers64

I was thinking about Donnie Darko and suddenly started wondering if there might be a little joke hidden in Kitty Farmer’s name.

Kitty Farmer is basically the person who brings Jim Cunningham’s ideology into the school. She shows his videos to the students, teaches them his whole “Love and Fear” thing, and is completely convinced that Cunningham is a good influence on the kids.

So I started reading her name as “Kitty Farmer” = someone farming the kids.

Not literally, obviously, but in the sense that she is unknowingly cultivating these kids within Cunningham’s ideology and helping give him access to them. She thinks she is educating and helping them, while actually helping Cunningham influence them.

And the irony becomes even darker after Cunningham is exposed. She still refuses to believe that he is a bad person and goes so far as to defend him and campaign for him.

So you have:

Jim Cunningham → Kitty Farmer → the kids

And Kitty is “farming” the kids for Cunningham without even realizing what she is helping to cultivate.

I haven't been able to find anyone else making this specific connection, and I obviously have no idea if Richard Kelly actually intended the name this way. It could just be a coincidence.

But considering how many little details and names in Donnie Darko seem deliberately chosen, I thought it was an interesting possibility.

Has anyone else ever noticed this or seen it discussed somewhere?

I recently discovered this album and I honestly don't understand how obscure it is.

It's a Danish vocal jazz album from 1994 by Ane Ramløse, released on Storyville. It was recorded in 1992/93, and the musicians on it are pretty crazy considering how little I've heard about this record: Thomas Clausen on piano, Fredrik Lundin, Hans Ulrik, Flemming Agerskov, Hans Andersson and Peter Danemo.

The music isn't really standard vocal jazz either. A lot of it is original material, with some pretty unusual arrangements and long instrumental sections. The whole thing has this very atmospheric, slightly strange early 90s Scandinavian jazz sound.

The thing that really caught my attention is the Cassandra Wilson connection.

One of the songs on the album is a Cassandra Wilson song, and in the booklet it says:

“Copyright 1987 by Ardnassac Pub.
Lyrics used by permission.”

Cassandra Wilson is also credited in connection with the arrangement of that song. I find that really interesting, especially since this was recorded around 1992/93, right before Blue Light 'til Dawn came out in 1993.

I have no idea how Ane Ramløse ended up recording it or how the permission came about. I would really like to know more about that.

What's also interesting is that Ramløse herself seems to have been considered part of a new generation of Danish female jazz musicians at the time. She was included in a 1993 article about the new generation of Danish female jazz musicians, so this wasn't just some completely random record that appeared out of nowhere.

And then the album basically disappeared.

I've tried looking for contemporary reviews from 1994, but there doesn't seem to be much surviving online. I can't really find the kind of critical history you'd expect from an album with musicians like these. There doesn't seem to have been a big reappraisal of it either.

Anyway, I just wanted to recommend it because I think it's a really interesting forgotten piece of 90s Danish jazz. It's probably not for everyone, but if you like Scandinavian vocal jazz, Cassandra Wilson, or just digging up obscure records that seem to have fallen through the cracks, give it a listen.

And if anyone here knows more about Ane Ramløse, the Cassandra Wilson connection, or what was said about this album when it came out in 1994, I'd genuinely love to hear it.

I recently came across Randi Laubek – Almost Gracefully (2000) and thought it might be of interest to some Joni Mitchell fans here