Well, dear readers, it is that time of year again. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is that time of year again – the time of year when we must all get off our complacent butt cheeks and set our complacent clocks back one hour, which means, of course, that we gain one hour of sleep. Some of my clocks do this automatically, but some I have to reset by hand, such as the microwave and regular over clocks, as well as the motor car clock – in fact, I do not have a clew how to reset the motor car clock and shall have to look that up in the instruction manual or look it up via Google (elgoog, spelled backwards). So, let’s all remember to set our clock backs otherwise we shall be discombobulated or, at the very least, discomnormanulated. I had a rather pleasantly pleasant day yesterday. She of the Evil Eye arrived in the morning and I went over to the storage facility and pulled all the charts for our December show – thankfully, everything I needed was there and easy to find – in fact, I think we were only missing one number’s lyrics, so I’ll have to get that from someone. This is an extremely difficult show to program, though, as most of the chosen songs were done by women – and even though we only have two men in the show, it’s hard figuring out what they’ll do – well, I’ve got Jason figured out, but now there’s one song too few for Dan Callaway, so I may just give him a one of the girl numbers, because it really doesn’t matter which gender sings them. I’m waiting to hear if we have a special guest appearance by a well-known person – if we don’t, then Dan will get that song, I think. We shall see. But I’ve set about two-thirds of the show, which, as expected, is a bit ballad-heavy. Then I did some errands and whatnot, after which I came back home, since the important envelope did not arrive, which I found very irksome. I then got some bacon and eggs, then came home and found out that I was indeed going to sup with a friend. So, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray as I’d done the day before. The day before I’d watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Toy Story 3. As expected, it was another Pixar winner – a beautifully told and animated feature, filled with humor, excitement, and a surprising amount of pathos. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the end of the film, which means that both of my eyes were quite wet. I also watched the wonderful Pixar short that preceded the film, Day and Night. The transfer is reference quality, perfect in every way, and breathtaking to watch. Yesterday, I watched a motion picture entitled White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney. It’s not really a great movie, but it’s one that has very enjoyable parts and some great Irving Berlin songs. I gather the film was not easy to shoot (Danny Kaye was unhappy, apparently, and insisted on Panama and Frank coming in to beef up his role, a role originally offered to Fred Astaire and then Donald O’Connor), but Michael Curtiz was a wonderful director and it’s just a minor holiday classic due to the songs and performances. I know what I thought of the transfer, but for fun I visited a couple of sites, one of which has a film preservation expert on it who makes with the pronouncements and his followers then agree with whichever way his wind blows. The problem is his pronouncements are just plain peculiar and one wonders if there’s something going on, some ulterior motives. For example, he gave his Seal of Approval to The Sound Of Music, a transfer I found perfectly fine but a little problematic at times. But because it got his Seal of Approval, everyone immediately called it a brilliant transfer, save for just a couple of people who were in agreement with the way I felt. So, I read his thoughts on White Christmas and was just shocked by them – he clearly likes the transfer, but says the colors are off in the opening reels (he is quite incorrect), and that it’s not as sharp as a VistaVision film should be (he is quite incorrect). For me, this is the best transfer of a VistaVision film I’ve ever seen – sharp, gorgeously rendered with no video noise, no what they call moiré patterns (which Sound of Music DOES have, despite what one reviewer would have you believe), rock solid image and contrast, and mind-bogglingly perfect color – if you want to know what IB Techniclor prints looked like, look no further than this transfer. The image is breathtaking, the colors pop like no other transfer I’ve seen, and it’s a brilliant job and Paramount deserves full kudos for it – and the expert should be singing its praises as he did for The Sound Of Music – and that’s why I suspect there is something more at play here. I say this with all due respect to the gentleman in question, as I know him and like him and we’ve had some lively discussions. But I think he’s doing a real disservice to this film and transfer, and it’s not the first time he’s done so. This transfer is highly recommended by the likes of me – you will not believe your eyeballs. And if you want to know just how fantastic a job they did, watch the new extras, all in HD, and all of which contain hi-def clips derived from the older master used for the special edition DVD – they are a mess – soft, bad color, and quite ugly. It’s really night and day and if you love this film you will go ape over the Blu and Ray.
I then began watching Leo McCarey’s Make Way For Tomorrow, a film I’ve never seen and one which, interestingly, is very much like the films of Ozu, especially Tokyo Story. This is a UK Blu and Ray and while it’s not the cleanest source material, it looks pretty good for its age and I’ll finish watching it today.
After that, my friend and I went to sup at a Thai place. We couldn’t get into the one in my neighborhood, so we ended up in Burbank at a little jernt that was pretty good. It didn’t seem like I was eating that much, but boy did I feel stuffed by the time we were done – we split pad Thai, mee krob and some garlic chicken, along with a salad with peanut dressing.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and then set my clocks back an hour, which will give me another hour of rest – or at least that’s the concept.
Today I have not a single plan and I intend to keep it that way. I’ll jog, I’ll eat VERY lightly, and I’ll watch motion pictures all the livelong day and evening. I’ll finish assigning songs and then I’ll make CDRs for the singers, and Xerox what I have to of the music (happily, a lot of what I found had extra copies).
Tomorrow, the composer of the musical we’ll be issuing will sit with my engineer and me and listen to our now-finished mixes. If he has any minor fixes we’ll do them, but nothing major will change because I’m very happy with the sound. And that will put that project to bed and we’ll probably announce it in a week or so. Then I have to go to my tape transfer guy to listen to some tapes, then have them transferred if they’re what I hope they are. If they are, then I’ll hurry and make that our next release. If not, then I’ll hurry and make something else our next release.
Tuesday, I have a work session with Miss Linda Purl and Mr. Gregory Harrison. The rest of the week is equally busy, and then I fly to Portland on Friday for the JMK event.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, reset clocks, jog, eat lightly, assign songs, make CDRs, Xerox music, and watch motion pictures. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland and then do the setting back of the clocks – or as the old song goes, Time After Time or in this case Time Before Time.