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June 7, 2003:

THE HOOTENANNY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am now overtired again. Why am I overtired you might ask and I might tell you because why should I keep such things as why I am overtired from you? I am overtired not because I went to bed at 12:15 am Pacific Mean Daylight Savings time, oh, no, I am not overtired because of that. I am overtired because the singing bird was outside my window along with several of its friends. Now, normally the singing bird (and I presume its friends) is fast asleep at such an hour. But not last night – last night they were alive and awake and atwitterin’. They were singing up a storm, dear readers. I guess they just up and decided to do a midnight concert, they just up and decided to do a regular hootenanny outside my window and I guess they were having such a swell time that the show went on for over two hours. They sang such timeless classics as This Land is Your Land, Midnight at the Oasis, After Midnight (We’re Gonna Let it All Hang Out), and for an encore they sang the entire score to Fiddler on the Roof – in Hebrew. The squirrel who lives on the roof was tapping it’s foot along with the music and the whole affair, while I’m sure pleasant for the singing bird, its friends, and the squirrel, kept me up until the wee small hours of the morning which, incidentally, they did not sing. And that is the reason I am overtired.

Wasn’t that a fine story for a Saturday? Last night, prior to the hootenanny, I watched an advance copy of the brand spanking new DVD for Mr. Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? That is the film wherein Mr. Allen took a real Japanese spy thriller and redubbed it with his own story and dialogue. The result is a somewhat hilarious exercise – with some huge laughs and some things that don’t work at all (actually, the many shots of the Lovin’ Spoonful singing in a club whilst sweaty people dance are probably not Mr. Allen’s invention, but are probably there because the then distributor, American International, wanted the film to have something for the teens. There is a strange thing that’s happened to this film in the last fifteen years – its soundtrack has changed (I don’t mean the music – I mean the dialogue). Every print that has been shown on cable or television during those years has had a strange dub – one that differs significantly from the original theatrical release of the film. No one seems to know why this dub exists – it’s very peculiar – most of the changes are totally unfunny and contain totally different voices (several of Woody’s voiced characters have different voices). A PAL DVD which was released earlier this year contained the weird alternate dub, in addition to a non-enhanced for widescreen TVs letterboxed transfer of a print which had no color whatsoever – it was totally brown. When I found out Image Entertainment was doing the DVD, I called my friend who works there and asked her if she knew about this weird alternate dub and if that’s what they were using. She said someone had heard something about it, but they had no clue as to how to tell the difference as to which track they were provided. I pointed her to a website which had a list of most of the changes – she went, and then she listened and she told me they did indeed have the alternate track. I told her they had to have the original track or people would be furious and really diss the disc. They ended up calling the people whom they licensed it from, and they were told that this track was the only track they had. They were getting ready to give the disc a street date and I told them that they shouldn’t – that they should find the original track, no matter what it took to do so. I then remembered that there had been a laserdisc of the film that had (at least as far as my memory was concerned) the original track (the laser came out in the mid-eighties), and they tracked one down and were able to clean up the sound and use it. I then suggested they put both versions on the disc, which they did. And then they did the smartest thing – as a special feature, someone exhaustively went through and noted each and every change, and you can now view both versions, scene by scene, before and after, without having to watch the film in its entirety. And the rest of the happy ending to this story is that the transfer is superb – enhanced for widescreen TVs and with perfect color.

Wasn’t that a lovely long story for a Saturday? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I must get myself to the post office to do some shipping, don’t you know?

Yesterday, I spent all day comping the vocals of the New York recording sessions, and I must say they came out beautifully – all the singers sound swellegant and cooliscious. As I’ve said before, comping vocals, if you’re good at it or even bother to do it, is a painstaking process, but worth it. The trick, of course, is to make the comps sound seamless, as if it were all done in one beautiful take. Ninety percent of the albums made have some form of comped vocals – and when they’re done well you would never ever be able to tell there was ever a comp done. Even the best of singers will occasionally have to fix a line or two in every song. Same in film, where they will frequently use part of one take combined with part of another take and all made seamless in the editing so that the best parts of a performance make up a seamless whole. In any case, in about two or three weeks, we’ll do the rest of the vocals, and then the fun part – mixing the album – happens (after we put on some additional instruments), and then we’re done.

Don’t forget, if you haven’t seen Mr. Kevin Chamberlin’s Unseemly Interview, do so, because it’s terrific. Also, don’t forget, Donald will have a brand spanking new radio show up tomorrow and our Unseemly Live Chat is on Monday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go hither and thither along the highways and byways, I must try to nap, I must do errands and whatnot. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Woody Allen movies? I’ll start – Manhattan (which I feel is his masterpiece), Sleeper, Take the Money and Run, Broadway Danny Rose, and of the recent ones, Sweet and Lowdown. Your turn.

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