Well, dear readers, today is the day. Yes, Virginia, today is the day that I go back into the recording studio with my old pals Mr. Guy Haines and Mr. Vinnie Cirilli. We are beginning at noon and hopefully all our voice boxes will be in good working order – so please don’t forget to send excellent vibes and xylophones with all your might right about noon and keep ’em coming until four. I shall have with me one Diet Coke, two bottled waters, two packets of EmergenC, one Actifed, and a lot of lyrics. The goal will be to get half the album – however, on the last Guy Haines album we got more than half on the first day. If that were to happen, it sure would take some pressure off the second day of recording. We’ll be starting off the session with one of the ballads, one in a low key. One has to do the stuff in low keys relatively early in the day whilst one still has the low notes. There will be no high notes sung until the very end of each session. Actually, there are really only two songs where the notes are much higher than Mr. Haines likes to sing – they are both quite rangy songs, going from low notes to extremely high notes. What we do in that instance is do all the lower stuff for those two songs in the morning, then come back to the higher stuff later in the day. It will be much fun to be back in the studio doing an entire album – this will be the first time since June of 2003, when we recorded Jeepers Creepers. Today’s duet will be Miss Jessica Rush, and tomorrow’s will be Miss Juliana A. Hansen. We also do two little bits of backup vocals tomorrow as well. I shall have a full report upon my return from the session, but until then you’ll all have to keep the home fries burning. Yesterday, I spent a completely restless day doing nothing but what I said I wouldn’t do – worrying about the voice box. The day went so slowly, not like most of these new-fangled days that speed by like a gazelle doing the minute waltz. It was actually excruciating. I should have planned a long drive or something, but I thought it best to just lie on my couch like so much fish, which is basically what I did all day. I did take a short drive and I did sing along with a few of Mr. Haines’ tracks. In any case, I don’t have to spend any more of those sorts of days, thank goodness.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled The Blackboard Jungle, a film of Mr. Richard Brooks, from the novel by Mr. Evan Hunter (also known as Mr. Ed McBain). It’s a rather preachy film about juvenile delinquency, but it has some very potent sequences that still pack a wallop. The performances are all great, from another amazing cast – Mr. Glenn Ford, Mr. Richard Kiley, Mr. Vic Morrow, Mr. Sidney Potier, Miss Anne Francis (so lovely), Mr. Louis Calhern, and, as two hoodlums, Mr. Paul Mazursky and Mr. Jamie Farr. The black-and-white 1:85 enhanced transfer is luscious-looking. There is a commentary track with Mr. Ford’s son, Jamie Farr, and Mr. Mazursky. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD entitled The Best of Everything, a big, glossy bit of fifties Cinemascope cheese the likes of which we haven’t had in decades. It occurs to me that this genre is ripe for coming back. The film stars the lovely Hope Lange, who is terrific. Why wasn’t this woman a bigger film star? Joan Crawford is in her element as the demanding and bitchy book editor. But that’s not all – we’ve also got lovely and demure Diane Baker, the very tall and beautiful Miss Suzy Parker, Louis Jourdan, Stephen Boyd, Brian Aherne (boy, would he be in jail for his behavior towards the secretaries), and many others, including a very smarmy Robert Evans. It is quite clear why he didn’t have a career – he has one of the most annoying voices ever put on the screen. The film was directed by Mr. Jean Negulusco, who did this sort of thing well, although he is one of my least favorite directors. The transfer veers from being great to slightly soft, but the four track stereo sound is full and wonderful. There are some lovely location shots of New York, including the theaters where Destry Rides Again and A Party with Comden and Green were playing.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Isn’t today the day? Don’t I have to hie myself to a recording studio? I do, for today there shall be a New Guy in Town. Let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below because we can’t keep Guy waiting.
For those who may have been errant and truant over the weekend (you know who you are), do be sure and catch up with all the marvelously marvelous postings and notes, as many interesting things were discussed.
I’ll tell you, when this Guy Haines album is in the can, I am treating myself to Marina the Masseuse. I shall have a luxuriously luxurious ninety minute massage in the home environment.
I’m trying to decide when the mix of the Guy Haines album will take place. We could start it this week, or we could wait until next Monday. I’ll see how Vinnie feels. I’d like to get the whole thing mixed before I record Kerry Butler’s vocal in New York. Then, all I’d have to do upon my return is mix that one track, and then send it off to be mastered.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, go record an album with Mr. Guy Haines, I must then come home with a full report for you dear readers, and I must eat something nice if the day goes well. Today’s topic of discussion: I’m not a huge fan of war movies – so, I’d like to hear your candidates for great war movies, even anti-war movies. I, of course, like both of Mr. Kubrick’s war films, Dr. Strangelove and Paths of Glory (I must watch it again). I look forward to your choices. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and don’t forget the excellent vibes and xylophones for both Mr. Haines and myself.