Well, dear readers, I have solved the mystery of the Firefly. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, have solved the mystery of the Firefly. It all began a month ago when I was choosing songs for the Cy Coleman Gardenia evening. I was sitting at the computer, the sun peeking in the windows and making little patterns like doilies on the wall. I decided to pair two classic Cy songs from his 1950s pop period – Firefly and Witchcraft. You must understand, when I was a wee sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth I went to the local A&P market (this would have been circa 1959) and there they had one of those LP bins filled with ninety-nine cent albums. I loved buying those and bought them quite often – I got the soundtrack to Gigi there (I talk about this in either Kritzerland or Kritzer Time) only the actual disc inside the Gigi cover was the cast album of Whoop-Up – in stereophonic sound. I got a wonderful album of a quintet playing Gypsy in jazz. And I got a compilation album on Columbia Records entitled Pop Hit Party (volume two – in all the years since I have never seen volume one). I bought it for one simple reason – it had the only recording of the song from The Blob, performed by The Five Blobs. I loved that song so much that I made note of its composer – Burt F. Bacharach. But there was another song I loved equally as much called Firefly, as sung by Tony Bennett. I played that song over and over and over again, singing it at the top of my lungs for over a year, and performing it at my Monday night family shows. I had the big Tony Bennett box set of CDs with all his classic recordings, but I took the simple way out and got it off iTunes. When I played it I felt something was off – it didn’t sound like I remembered it. But, I went and got the CD out of the box set and it was the same and the recording date seemed to mesh so I figured my memory, which is never faulty about things from my childhood, was faulty. I listened to it several more times in advance of doing our arrangement and put-together with Witchcraft and every time it felt like I was hearing a mutant version of Firefly – weirdly jazzy and just not what was in Ye Olde Memory Banks.
Flash forward to yesterday. I went into the garage environment, where the one hundred or so LPs I still have are stored. After about twenty minutes, I found Pop Hit Party (volume two). I took it in the home environment and put it on the turntable and played Firefly. And lo and behold and also behold and lo, there was the exact recording of Firefly that I remembered from long ago – and it was NOT the recording in the Tony Bennett box set or on iTunes. It was, in fact, completely different in style, orchestration, and vocal. All I can think of is that the song was originally recorded as a single and in mono, and at some point around then, they redid it in stereo but with the different feel and orchestration and a vocal that is nowhere near as good as the original. So, the Mystery of the Firefly was solved at long last, and my never faulty memory of things from my childhood remains unsullied and pure.
That was an excellent mystery story, wasn’t it? But don’t I have some notes to write? I do and I shall, not necessarily in that order. I had a nice, relaxing Friday. I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I wanted, but I did get eight hours. I got up, answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, had a brief visit from the chap who lends me album covers for some of our show releases, and then I went to have a sandwich and onion rings. After that, I went to the mail place where I picked up one package and an important envelope. I then did some banking, then came back home. I then got news that our next few projects had been uploaded to something called an ftp site, where the mastering guy will grab them and then put them on our iDisk so I can hear them. One of the projects is two soundtracks on one CD. They were both previously released on an import CD but not in this pairing. I loaded those versions in iTunes and whatever we’ve got coming to us has to sound better than these sorry CDs from overseas. I’m fairly certain they were not made from first generation masters, and I’m equally certain that the label that issued them did nothing whatsoever to make them sound good. The big concern, however, is that together both albums run slightly over eighty minutes. I won’t do a CD that long because the pressing plant won’t guarantee the discs. I really didn’t want to make these two separate releases, but as I listened to the first album I realized that one track is source music – just guitar strumming and people kind of clapping and stomping, so I have no problem leaving that awful track off the CD – it’s not score and it’s not written by the composer and it’s totally irritating. So, that bought me two minutes. And then, listening to the second score I realized instantly that for whatever stupid reasons, one track on side one is exactly the same track that’s on side two – they even have the same track title. So, I can pull that off (and I’ll explain all this in the liner notes) and I’ll have a nice seventy-seven minute CD – so that will work out perfectly. After that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled New York, New York, starring Mr. Grant Geissman, along with Mr. Robert De Niro and Miss Liza Minnelli. People, over the years, have tried to make every kind of excuse for this film – it’s spoken of as if it were some kind of masterpiece and as if it was one of Scorsese’s hits. People seem to blithely forget that it was critically reviled and a box-office disaster of the highest order. The question is – with all that talent – why? The answer is, unfortunately, very simple. To begin with, you have a leading man whose character is a complete and utter jerk and cretin from the first frame to the last. As a character, it starts at point A and ends at point A. Then you have a leading lady who, for reasons that defy credulity, falls in love with the lout and stays with him for far too long. Hence, she’s such an idiot that we don’t feel anything for her at all. Then you have a director who has encouraged his actors to improvise their scenes. I suppose it never occurred to anyone that it’s usually a good idea to have well-written scenes written by a WRITER. But what we get instead are some of the most excruciatingly bad improvised scenes in the history of the cinema – and they go on and on and on and finally drown in an ocean of self-indulgence. And the thing goes on for 163 minutes. Yes, this version of the film contains the complete “Happy Endings” number – oh, how they all want it to be like the “Born In A Trunk” number from A Star Is Born, and oh, how it isn’t. It literally stops the movie for like fifteen minutes or something. And not is a good way. But along the way we do get some plusses – not many, but we’re always grateful for crumbs. The production design is very nice, the costumes are fun, and the band and the music sounds great. And we get two wonderful Liza moments – The World Goes Round and New York, New York. In the end, it’s just a bad movie that has a couple of nice moments.
So, where does Grant Geissman fit into this picture? Well, a VERY young Grant Geissman can be seen for long stretches of screen time as the guitarist in the various bands. He gets several close shots and best of all, it looks like he’s really playing, even though he did not actually play on the soundtrack. I’ve only read one “review” of this Blu and Ray and it was written by a former denizen of this here site. I will only say that he doesn’t really understand what he’s seeing, so I’m happy to spell it out here – this is the same element that was used for the last DVD release. It most certainly is not off the camera negative. Therefore, it is a few generations away and it really shows. There are a LOT of opticals in this film and some of them go on for whole sequences, and because the film stock used for them was not very good, they look terrible – with popcorn-sized yellow grain – the people who think that’s what cameramen and directors wanted are really living in Fantasyland. Had they gone from the camera negative, it would have certainly been better and cleaner and closer to the intention of the filmmakers. Release prints were always a compromise in those days. Mr. Scorsese and his cameraman were trying to replicate the look of the MGM musicals – you will note that the MGM musicals do not have yellow popcorn-sized grain. They are clean and clear and sparkling. I suppose it might be worth picking this up for the musical numbers, sets, costumes, and the band.
After that, I had an e-mail discussion with a friend whose been reading the web series episodes as I write them. The fourth episode was hard to write because it’s slightly different than the others – and I wasn’t quite happy with it and knew there was something that wasn’t working. My friend (who’ll be working on this with me) was able to say some things that made me understand how to rethink a few lines of dialogue and therefore make them funnier. I didn’t really agree with what he was suggesting I do, but as we went back and forth, I understood his point and what he was saying and I was able to come up with a solution that I felt worked. Then I did the little rewrite (you must remember, these scripts are only six pages long) and sent it back to him and he thought all his concerns had been met and that it was now as funny as it should be. So, that was good and that’s why I love collaboration.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s quite late and I must get these here notes posted so I can get my beauty sleep.
Today, I have some errands and whatnot to do, I will hopefully pick up a package or three, I will have a rehearsal with the thirteen-year-old, I will sup, and then I will attend a film music concert. I will, of course, have a full report upon my returning for which I know you’ll be yearning.
Tomorrow, I will do some writing (must do new liner notes), I will print out sheet music and make CDRs for the cast, and then it’s our Annual Tony Awards Bash, and even if you don’t care about the awards or the show, this is the place to be for merriment and mirth and laughter and legs. Next week is very busy, with meetings, meals, and a whole lot of everything. I have confirmed that Alet Taylor will be doing the LACC show (our female ringer), so that was very good news.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, pick up a package or three, rehearse, sup, and attend a concert. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Martin Scorsese films and your favorite Liza Minnelli films and songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the mystery of the Firefly has been solved by the likes of me.