Well, dear readers, it’s the same old same old – it’s Friday, and yes the week has flown by like a gazelle in a psychiatric ward. Frankly, I’d like there to be the same new same new rather than the same old same old, but what can you do when time marches on and on marches time? Nothing, that’s what you can do. So, it’s Friday, the start of a long weekend, for which I am grateful, as I can use it to do many things that need doing. One thing I will not be doing is the same old same old. I’m tired of doing the same old same old, aren’t you? I need to go out on a limb and try something brand spanking new. Of course, going out on a limb is not that easy – the limb might not hold me, for example, and then where would I be? Not on the limb, certainly. Where was I? Oh, yes, I will not be doing the same old same old. I shall be adventurous and fancy free and I will have nothing but gay abandon. One simply cannot have enough gay abandon, can one? Speaking of gay abandon, yesterday was quite a day. I got up early, answered some e-mails, then had to hurry over to the Alex Theater for our walk-through. What a beautiful theater it is, too, and our show will work splendidly there. After the walk-through, Cason Murphy and I lunched at Marie Callender’s, and whilst lunching, we prepared a rough budget for the entire event. I then came home, packaged up some CDs for shipping later today or tomorrow morning, then had to toddle off to meet with the president of LACC. It was a terrific meeting, and the most terrific thing about it was being told that our event is now fully funded, which is great news and let’s us all breathe a lot easier. So, one of the things I’ll be doing over this long weekend is begin to choose material for the show, along with who I think would be best to do said material, and I’ll start contacting people in earnest now. I’ll also try to settle on a music director. After the meeting, I went to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to purchase tickets for The High And The Mighty. I was annoyed to find out that they’d closed at five, and weren’t reopening until six-thirty, and that I’d have to stand in a line to buy tickets, and then another line to get in. That, plus the knowledge that there was a reception first for invitees and that they’d be taking all the prime seats, well, I just got annoyed and went home. Prior to sitting on my couch like so much fish, I did get a bite to eat at a restaurant I’d never been in before, the California Canteen, which doesn’t really suit its name at all since it’s basically a French restaurant on Cahuenga Blvd. West. I had a Casesar Salad and onion soup and it was really excellent, so I’ll be going back to try some other dishes. After that, I finally came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
The other night, I watched a DVD entitled The Magic Show. It’s based on the musical written by Mr. Stephen Schwartz, but was filmed in Canada years after the show had closed. I never saw The Magic Show, but I knew its cast album very well. I gather the thing that’s on this disc is very different from the show that played in New York. I do know two of its songs are missing, the great West End Avenue, and Solid Silver Platform Shoes. Doug Henning is charming, but the book (I have no idea how close it is to the NY book) is horrible, and his other cast members are less than stellar. The sound is awful, the reorchestrations take all the Schwartz out of the songs, and I must say I found everything but the magic pretty terrible. The transfer looks okay.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because this whole section is starting to feel like the same old same old.
As you know, the other day I found a few more Bay Cites CDs out in the garage. I don’t know why, but it inspired me to listen to one of our classical releases that has the Randall Thompson second symphony on it – it’s one of my favorite American symphonies, filled with marvelous melodies and terrific orchestral writing. So, I listened to it and the Norman Dello Joio and Jerome Moross pieces that were also on the CD – and even though they were old mono recordings, I was rather amazed at how we’d managed to make them sound so much better than their LP counterparts. I hadn’t listened to that CD since 1989, when it came out. So, I pulled out a bunch of our other American classical CDs and have been going through them. What fabulous music we reissued! One of our discs has a great symphony by Homer Keller, and I was amazed to see that my CD booklet was signed by Mr. Keller, just as all my Robert Ward CDs are signed by him, and my Miklos Rozsa, A Double Life CD is signed by him. The Keller disc also has a fantastic Quincy Porter piece on it. And then there was the first Bay Cities disc, an all Robert Ward program – his piano concerto (one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard) and two symphonies, all in great sound. As those who’ve read Kritzer Time know, Mr. Ward was a huge influence on me (as I mentioned yesterday). I also played the first Howard Hanson disc we did, which has several pieces on it, none better than his concerto for organ, harp, and strings, which is so much better a recording than the recently released Naxos cheapie. It’s quite a visit down memory lane for me, and I’m looking forward to hearing our Roy Harris CDs, along with Virgil Thomson, George Antheil, more Dello Joio, more Ward, more Hanson. I sometimes forget just how wonderful Bay Cities was and how we were loved. Ninety-three albums in three years, with many wonderful soundtracks and cast albums, and a handful of jazz and vocal albums. If you ever seen any of these classical releases at bargain prices, grab ’em.
This morning, I have an early rehearsal with Miss Joan Ryan here at the home environment. After that, I’m hopeful of seeing Miss Julieanne Pogue briefly, and then I must finish entering corrections, and begin choosing the selections for our fundraiser. I also really have to finish learning all this music for the reading.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, do errands, meet a Pogue, and do various and sundried other tasks. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, a whole slew of Bay Cites’ CDs. DVD, next up is Fixed Bayonets, a film of Samuel Fuller. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and not just the same old same old.