Well, dear readers, in just another day I shall be on my way to the York of New, to do a book signing, to see dear reader PennyO’s show, and to get-together with all the hainsies/kimlets who’ll be in attendance. But, those who are not in attendance will be very much in our thoughts and conversation. I’m starting to look forward to this trip very much. It will be my very first trip with my new Tumi carry-on bag, and my first trip with my new PowerBook computer. Yesterday, I tried to take care of everything that needed taking care of, so that today I can simply relax. I’m even going to postpone doing the radio show with Donald until after my return. My day started quite early, and I picked up the book copies, registered one of them at the post office, then picked up the Writer’s Block CDs, packaged them, and second day UPS’d them to my hotel, so that they’ll be there upon my arrival. I picked up a package from amazon and I lunched with Miss Tammy Minoff. Later, I bought a new wireless mouse and an extra power cord just for traveling. And last night I even did some advance packing, just to see how my new Tumi carry-on was going to work. What a great bag it is – it looks small, but boy does it carry a lot of stuff, and all very neatly, too. For quite awhile the question was Tumi or not Tumi, but I’m glad that question got answered in the affirmative. My manuscript is already in one pocket, my toiletries are in another compartment, my pantaloons and socks in another. All that’s left to pack are a few shirts, an extra pair of pants and that’s it. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night, I popped open the amazon package, which contained the new musicals box set from Warner Home Video. I immediately watched a motion picture entertainment on DVD, the one and only Bells are Ringing, starring Miss Judy Holliday and Mr. Dean Martin. I really adore Bells are Ringing, but even when I originally saw it, I knew that it was a very static motion picture entertainment – certainly not Mr. Minelli’s finest hour cinematically. But, it doesn’t matter, because the Divine Judy is brilliant, sweet, warm and just plain beautiful as Ella Peterson. Dean acquits himself very well, with the exception of the I Met a Girl number, in which he looks like he’d rather be at the race track than singing and bumping into extras. The score is one of my favorites, and Mr. Previn’s way with it is superb. I get very teary-eyed every time I watch Miss Holliday sing The Party’s Over – it’s simply magic. Also magic is the transfer, which is spectacular. If you’ve seen this film on VHS, laserdisc or more recently on TCM, you know how awful its looked – with brown dullsville faded Eastman color, and bland stereo sound. Well, the film looks like it was shot yesterday. The only thing “some people” will complain about is the occasional flickering, but if they use their noggins (they won’t) they’ll realize that it only happens during opticals – that’s the way it’s always been. The new 5.1 soundtrack is alive and swell. The DVD has a completely inept and pointless featurette with Hal Linden (the original understudy for Sydney Chaplin on Broadway, and the singer of The Midas Touch in the film) – there was much drama on the set of Bells are Ringing, and it would have been nice to hear a little about it. Frank Gorshin (Blake Barton) is also in the featurette. But the gold are the two cut songs featured as extras (both anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs) – one, the delightful Is it a Crime, done by Judy. Despite her wonderful performanc, it’s easy to see why it was cut – it’s shot very poorly and Mr. Minnelli’s direction (one static shot) sucks the life out of it. It was obviously decided it would be removed very early on, because the dialogue sections which should have orchestral underscore, only have piano accompaniment, even in the bits Judy sings while she’s speaking the dialogue. The other number is a solo ballad for Dean – not a great song, and completely unnecessary to the plot and the film. I also briefly checked out Finian’s Rainbow, which looks amazing, and I’m halfway through The Band Wagon, which has not looked this good since its original release. I still think these Warners restorations of some of the Technicolor MGM musicals has color that is not quite correct (I feel that way about both Singin’ in the Rain and Meet Me in St. Louis – both of which err on the brown side), but they get pretty close to being accurate on The Band Wagon.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got more to talk about in the next section.
Have I mentioned how much I love me my new Tumi carry-on bag? To me Tumi is the cat’s pyjamas. Tumi or not Tumi, that is the question and the answer is yes, yes, yes (that is three yeses).
Now, here’s the deal with tomorrow’s notes. Because I have to get up at about four o’clock in the morning, I’ll be posting the notes early, probably around nine. This will enable me to get to bed by ten. I’ll also start the new day’s topic at nine as well. Then you’ll all have to keep the home fries burning until I’m all set up for high speed Internet at the hotel. I’m hoping to be in the city by six. Then I shall be supping with friends around eight at Joe Allen’s.
The one thing I must remember to do today is to go to the bank and get some cash. One simply must have cash for things such as taxis and whatnot. After I do that, the only other thing I may try to do is to find a warmer coat. I don’t really know any good stores for this type of thing – I checked out Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s but they really didn’t even have anything that approached what I’d like to have. If I don’t find anything, then I’ll just wear what I usually wear.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must relax, I must do a bit of shopping, I must get some cash, I must eat lightly, and I must try and get to bed as early as possible. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like, and we get to give any old answer we like. Let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely postings, shall we?