Happiness Runs Early Elementary/Level 1 Piano Duet

• Published by Faber Piano Adventures 6 Pages
• Piano Level Early Elementary/Level 1
• Arranger: Nancy Faber

A coming-of-age tale, that finds a young man, Victor (Mark L. Young), growing up on a Utopian commune faced with the challenge to either submit to his community's ideals or to escape. Victor's mother (Andie MacDowell) funds the collective where guru Insley (Rutger Hauer) lectures a lifestyle of free love and out-of-body meditations. Spurred by the sudden reappearance of his childhood love Becky (Hanna Hall), Victor creates a desperate plot to save them both and escape the polygamous cult. One part WOODSTOCK, one part LORD OF THE FLIES, director Adam Sherman's semi-autobiographical film, HAPPINESS RUNS, is a cautionary tale about freeing yourself of social constrictions.

It’s 2008. Jim Axelrodâ€"once among the most watched correspondents on network news and the! first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue, Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the television news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the w! orst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the s! hadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your own skin.

It’s 2008. Jim Axelrodâ€"once among the most watched correspondents on network news and the first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue! , Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the television news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the worst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the shadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your ! own skin.

It’s 2008. Jim Axe! lrodâ€"o nce among the most watched correspondents on network news and the first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue, Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the televisi! on news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the worst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the shadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your own skin.

Reproduction poster of Happiness Runs printed on heavy card stock.
Students may just start singing this engaging melody and cheerful lyric. Legato and staccato touches are explored as both parts share melody and harmony.

Songs: Happiness Runs