Well, dear readers, here we are on a Monday, which will hopefully be a fun day for you and me. That was quite a lyrical way to open these here notes, wasn’t it? I feel that was quite lyrically lyrical and also liltingly lilting in a lyrically lyrical lovely way. I’m being awfully alliterative, aren’t I? So far, I’ve been lyrical, lilting and alliterative and I’m not even ten lines into this paragraph. Let’s have a day filled with sparkle and fizz, shall we? That would be a fine way to start off a week, wouldn’t it? Sparkle and fizz, that’s the ticket. Speaking of tickets, I had a very interestingly interesting day yesterday. First off, I had a lovely, lyrical and lilting nights sleep. Then I got more writing done than I’d planned. Then I toddled off to the home environment of Mr. Grant Geissman, where I heard rough versions of five count them five tracks for the Guy Haines album. Even in their rough state they sounded quite lovely, lyrical and lilting and a couple of them had real sparkle and fizz. Hearing them, I knew instantly that each song was a really good choice. We then routined all of the remaining songs. Some song choices, including one last-minute addition, were/are surprising to me. But, I think one ends up with what one should end up with. There seems to be a good balance of ballads and uptempos. There are a couple of world premieres, there are a couple of authentic standards, there are some not-very-often-recorded songs, and there are some pretty obscure things as well, which I’m happy about. I think it will be a fine album. Hopefully, Mr. Grant Geissman in now in the groove, so to speak, and he will keep plowing ahead. When he’s through doing his “thing”, then we’ll bring in our musicians to do the tracks on which they play, and then, last but not least, Mr. Haines will do his vocals (as will our few guest stars). After I got home, I was pleased to see that I’d won a fabulously fabulous item on eBay – a baseball from Dodger Stadium circa 1959. It was some publicity stunt day for Paramount Studios, and this baseball is signed by most of the cast of the film of Li’l Abner, including our very own Leslie Parrish. Two schlemiels bid at the last minute, costing me quite a bit of money, although it was still a huge bargain. There had been no bids on this thing at all until the end. The opening bid was twenty-nine bucks, but the schlemiels couldn’t let it go for that, and the closing bid was just over a hundred bucks. Of course, they could have bid whatever they wanted and they still would have lost because they are schlemiels of the highest order and they had no clew who they were going up against. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Gojira, which, on these here United States shores is known as Godzilla. This is a region 2 DVD that contains both the original Japanese cut of the film and the redone US version with Raymond Burr. If you’ve only seen the Raymond Burr version, then you really haven’t experienced Godzilla as its filmmakers intended. The original film runs ninety-seven minutes. It’s quite a serious and somber film, very much about how the Japanese were feeling after Hiroshima. There are many instances of blatant talking about nuclear bombs, and the depiction of the wounded being burned and maimed and then checked for radiation is quite obvious in its meaning. In one rather mind-boggling closeup, a woman and her child are huddled in a doorway as Godzilla unleashes his radioactive breath, and the mother screams, “We’re going to join your father, don’t be afraid! We’re going to join your father!” The photography and special effects are great for their time, and the score by Akira Ifukube is brilliant. The US version runs seventy-eight minutes, but it’s a lot more than twenty minutes of the original film missing, more like thirty, because of all the added scenes with Mr. Burr. I must say, the US version is rather brilliant in the way it inserts Mr. Burr into scenes he was never in. Of course, the entire meaning of the film is different in this version – all nuclear talk and scenes are out. In the US version, it’s just a monster on the loose. The transfer for both films is spotty and I’m hoping that when the original Gojira is released in region 1 that it will look a lot better than this.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve ever so much to talk about on this Monday, which will hopefully be a fun day filled with sparkle and fizz.
I also watched a motion picture that I TIVOd, entitled The Tarnished Angels, directed by Mr. Douglas Sirk, and starring Miss Dorothy Malone, Mr. Rock Hudson, and Mr. Robert Stack, along with Jack Carson and Ray Middleton. I’ve heard about the film for years (it is Mr. Sirk’s favorite of all his films), but I’d never managed to catch it. It’s a splendidly splendid film, filled with Mr. Sirk’s brilliantly brilliant direction. His hand is everywhere – from the décor to the camerawork and lighting, to the score to the performances. No one does melodrama better than Mr. Sirk, and his films are exhilarating to behold. It’s not on DVD yet, but I’m hoping Universal will get around to it one of these fine days, in a nice anamorphic scope transfer.
I’ve got quite a full day ahead of me. I’m going to try and write as much as possible in the early morning hours, for then I shall be retrieving Miss Juliana A. Hansen from her home environment so that we may lunch and do a bit of catching up. If it works out, scheduling-wise, Miss Hansen may just be doing a duet with Mr. Haines, and she’ll be getting that music today as well. I shall then have to return her from whence she came, and then I shall do a bit more writing. I think I may have something to do in the evening, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it might be.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must lunch, I must do a few errands, I must drive about in my motor car, and I must be lovely, lyrical and lilting, not necessarily in that order. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could own any car in the whole wide world, old or new, what would it be and why? Let’s have loads of lovely, lyrical and lilting posts, shall we? And let’s load them up with sparkle and fizz, just because we can.