Well, dear readers, you won’t believe it. I can barely believe it myself and yet I must because it is true. Just when we’re finished celebrating one birthday, we get to celebrate another birthday. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, we get to celebrate another birthday. So, even though you just took off your pointy party hat and colored tights and pantaloons, even though you just gorged on cheese slices and ham chunks, even though you just danced the Hora and the Wa-Wa-Watusi, we must do it all over again because our very own Nick Redman is celebrating his very own birthday today. What fun we shall have, partying until the cows come home. We will have merriment and mirth and laughter and legs and in honor of Mr. Redman we will dance to the hit tunes of Cleopatra by Mr. Alex North. In any case, on the count of three let us wish Mr. Nick Redman the happiest of haineshisway.com birthdays: One, two, three – The happiest of birthdays to Mr. Nick Redman!
I just got a call from dear reader Laura to join our Los Angeles visitors at Du-par’s at the Farmer’s Market. I was actually looking forward to doing that, but they are going right now and I got up a bit late and must write these here notes so I had to sadly say that I couldn’t join them.
Last night I attended a delightful and irreverent seder at the home of birthday boy Nick Redman. A lovely time was had by all and then we watched something called American Idol. Mr. Redman and his daughter Rebecca are hooked on the show, as are most Americans. I wanted to immediately vote everyone off the show, no one more so than the host.
I also got a PAL Region 2 DVD of Mr. Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz which I watched when I got home. I haven’t seen it in over fifteen years and it’s actually gotten better. There are still some annoying things in it but it is so Fosse and so fascinating and so beautifully directed that one forgives it its minor faults. The opening is still brilliant as is the Everything Old is New Again number. I’ll say it again – this is a man who knew how to compose a number for the camera. He did not set up eight cameras and then “assemble” it like a TV special. There is a commentary track from Roy Scheider and he mentions that after the two days of shooting the opening of the film, the director Alan Heim cut it together and Fosse was so delighted that he never changed it. There are also five brief clips of Fosse directing the opening, which are great to have. This DVD will be coming out here in August and it sounds like it will be the same as this. I think the transfer, which is enhanced for widescreen TVs, could be a bit better, but maybe the US version will be.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so we can learn the secrets of the other half of these here notes.
Here is the secret of this half of the notes: I did not have time to answer your excellent questions, so I shall post the answers in tomorrow’s notes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must get crackin’, I have many calls to make, many things to organize, cheese slices and ham chunks to eat, writing to do and errands to run. I know this section is quite short but tomorrow’s notes will be quite long so it all evens out in the end, doesn’t it? Today’s topic of discussion: Do you play an instrument and if so, what instrument. How long have you played, how many years did you study and why did you take up your particular instrument. And, if the answer is you don’t play an instrument – if you could choose one to play what would it be and why? I’ll start – I play the piano. Mostly self-taught, although I did take lessons for six months with a very innovative teacher when I was fifteen or sixteen. Your turn.