Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle in a Worsted suit. Does anyone – still wear – a Worsted suit? What the HELL is a Worsted suit anyway? Is there also a Bested suit? Of course, being that haineshisway.com is the information hub of the Internet, I can tell you that the word Worsted as regards wool, came from the village of Worstead in the county of Norfolk. This village, as well as North Walsham and Aylsham, was a centre for manufacturing cloth and yarn because weavers from Flanders arrived en masse in the 12th century. I know this because I was there. These weavers from Flanders were most amusing. They’d weave and then tell tales of Flanders, especially the Carnival of Flanders, although that tale was a big old flop. The weavers met the tinkers and, conversely, the tinkers met the weavers, and when they combined they became the twinkers. These twinkers did a lot of twinking. They’d send little one-line messages to each other on bits of paper, twinking all the livelong day and night. Little did these twinkers know that many centuries later on the Internet, someone would rip their idea off by changing the name slightly to tweeters who Twitter. I like to think of tweeters who Twitter as twits, myself, but that didn’t catch on and believe me that was trying to catch on but on was just too damn fast for that, bobbing and weaving, which, of course, brings us back to the weavers and the tinkers. The tinkers were, in fact, deep tinkers, tinking all day long of new plans and schemes. Of course the weavers got jealous of the tinkers tinking and the weavers began obsessive winking. Pretty soon the whole village was run amok with winking and tinking, not necessarily in that order. You know, if anyone has a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about, you might want to toss said clew my way right about now because I certainly have no idea what the HELL I’m talking about, not that THAT’S ever stopped me before. Weavers From Flanders – that’s the title of my next novel.
I must tell you, that yesterday was a day of non-stop doing. I just did and did and never stopped, never had a break until I got home at nine-thirty last night. I got up at five-thirty after some peculiar dreams. I went back to sleep at six and got up again at eight-thirty. I answered some e-mails, and then went back to work doing the editing road map for our next release (I’d begun it the night before and gotten about twenty minutes into the film and the locating of the cues on our master element). CDs arrived at nine-thirty and I immediately began to pack them up. We’d already split up the single orders into separate piles, one for Brent and one for Brain. I packed those first. Then came the multiple orders and those took a really long time to package because I had to be really careful – plus I was inserting the signed Brent booklets into the first 100 packages. I finally got it all done, including all the International orders and then I lugged all those boxfuls of CD packages to Ye Olde Motor Car and drove them over to the postal office, where I dropped them off on the loading dock. I then came home, got the UPS forms for my big online dealer shipment and took those to Jerry’s Deli where I had some bacon and eggs and addressed all those forms. I then came home – the phone kept ringing incessantly, each call from the author of the long musical. I finally wrote the creative team a mass e-mail asking them to please not call me for the rest of the day. That did the trick. I then went back to work on the editing road map – it’s painstaking work, although this was easier than some have been. But as soon as a music cue comes up in the film, you have to pause and then locate that cue on our master element. I then have to give a title to the cue and note the duration of the cue and where it occurs in our element. The film was ninety minutes long and the whole process took about four hours to do. But, it was done and I sent it off to my mastering guy. Then Cason Murphy came over and we lugged all the big, heavy boxes to the UPS Store and got those on their merry way, and we also packaged up about ten other big orders. Once he was gone, I decided to announce our new title – it was very spur of the moment. I then had to go to rehearsal. I could only take two hours and then I bailed. I really get no kick out of watching people struggle to learn songs, but I do get a kick out of you. I then headed home, stopping at the postal office and shipping the ten big packages in the night drop. I got home and was really hungry – I only had a tiny pit of penne pasta (left over from the other night) and a tiny bit of spaghetti pasta (left over from the other night) – probably about four ounces in all. I boiled water and made the pasta – then I put a little butter and cheese on it and sat on my couch like so much fish and ate it all up.
Last night, I watched the first thirty minutes of the new Blu and Ray of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, certainly one of my all-time favorite films – I’d guess I’ve seen it over 100 times and it’s always captivating, exciting, sexy, thrilling, and beyond clever, with brilliant Hitchcock touches abounding, and one of the wittiest screenplays ever written, with more quotable dialogue than all the films made in the last two decades put together. I could quote from this film all day long, and frequently do. I can often be heard to say, “Games? Must we” or “With such expert playacting you make this very room a theater.” “Pay the two dollars.” “No, I didn’t take Laura’s Mercedes.” “Maybe he has his suits mended by invisible weavers.” “You men aren’t really trying to kill my son?” “Is this a joke?” “Yes, a joke – we will laugh in the car.” So far, the Blu-Ray is quite excellent, with vivid and accurate color and very sharp (although Robert Burks shot with a lot of diffusion, especially for a film made in 1959). The transfer was made from the original VistaVision elements and it’s quite dense-looking – and very close in feel to the way the original IB Technicolor prints looked. There has been a change at Warners – one they’re not acknowledging for to acknowledge would mean they’d have to admit that several transfers have color that in no way resembles what the films originally looked like, and that includes their botch job on The Searchers. But, slowly but surely since they entered Blu-Ray, they’ve found someone who understands color and blue has suddenly returned to their transfers, rather than the preponderance of yellow and brown. I’ll have more to say after I’ve finished the film for the umpteenth time.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we ponder the Worsted and the Bested suit and the weavers from Flanders and the tinkers from Pomona.
Today I have more packages to ship, including Brent’s order, his musical director’s order and his publicist’s order. And then I have four or five others to package up, and once I’ve done those and shipped them, then the rest of the day is mine to do with as I wish. I intend to clear my head, I intend to do the long jog, I intend to eat something amusing, and then I’m hoping that I’ll finally get over to Grant Geissman’s to record the two new songs and mix the Niki Scalera tracks.
Tomorrow is another rehearsal and, believe it or not, I have to start the liner notes for the next release. Friday is also a rehearsal, but during the day. The weekend is free as of this moment, save for a lunch or dinner with dear reader Jeanne.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, pack up orders and ship them, eat, and hopefully record and mix. 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. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, as we all put on our best Worsted suits personally made by the weavers from Flanders.